Zeta
by Angel596
Summary: Chapter 20 is up. Dally disappears for a while. Along the same lines as the previous chapter I deleted. Sorry. Running out of creativity.
1. A Fight, A Failure and a Phone Call

I sat in my usual seat in the principal's office. Darry is going to kill me. I glanced around to make sure there were no sharp objects near me. Then it dawned on me that he could kill me with his bare hands.  
  
I need a cigarette.  
  
I stood up and headed for the door but just as I got there, I saw Darry walking towards me. I backed up and bumped right into the chair behind me. My face got red when I heard people laugh. Our principal, Mrs. Jackson, saw Darry walk in and came out of her office to greet him.  
  
"Good to see you again," she said with a warm smile.  
  
"Sorry it had to be under such circumstances," Darry replied, looking over at me.  
  
"Let's go in my office and talk," she said. She nodded towards a man behind the counter.  
  
"Carl, please escort Ms. Curtis to her locker so she can get her books." Carl nodded at her and stepped out from behind the counter.  
  
I walked silently to my locker. Take my books home. Did Mrs. Jackson seriously think I was gonna study?? Well I had to now that she opened her big trap about my geometry grade.  
  
I opened my locker and reached for a pack of smokes, forgetting that Carl was right behind me. He cleared his throat so I put them back and reached for my geometry book. Where is my geometry book? I got down on my knees and start looking through all the junk at the bottom of my locker.  
  
"What are you doing, Zeta?"  
  
I looked up to see Ponyboy standing next to me.  
  
"What are YOU doing?" I asked. I turned and glared at Carl with a raised eyebrow. "Do you mind?"  
  
He rolled his eyes and walked to the window.  
  
"Two Bit and me were gonna skip next class and go see Soda."  
  
"Yeah well I wouldn't if I was you," I said, still searching for that stupid geometry book. Who cared about geometry anyways?  
  
Ponyboy gave me a funny look.  
  
"Darry is up in The General's office right now," I said. We all called Mrs. Jackson 'The General' occasionally. She was nice, but could be very harsh.  
  
Harsh. Calling Darry certainly was harsh. That girl deserved what she got.  
  
"Why?" Pony asked.  
  
I finally found my geometry book and stood up. "I got in a fight this morning, so Jackson suspended me for 2 days. When she called Darry, she let it slip that I was failing geometry."  
  
"Have you ever even opened that book?" Ponyboy asked, pointing down at the geometry book I held. The pages were nice and neat. "Of course I have. I tore a page out to spit out my gum once."  
  
"Darry's gonna beat the tar outta you," Pony said. I nodded. I coulda told him that.  
  
Carl came back and cleared his throat again. How annoying. "You should really get that checked out," I said.  
  
When we got back to The General's office, Darry was waiting for me. "Let's go, Zeta Claire Curtis," he said.  
  
I hate it when he calls me my full name. We got in the truck and rode the whole way home in silence. I didn't say anything to him because I could see his knuckles turning white from gripping the steering wheel so tight. We pulled into the driveway and Darry finally spoke.  
  
"When I come home, I expect the house clean, the laundry done and dinner made. Do you understand me, young lady?"  
  
"Yeah yeah."  
  
"We'll talk about this when I get home," he said. I got out of the car and he took off to go back to work. 


	2. Darry's Orders

When I came into the house, I looked around. Man, the house was a mess. I had my work cut out for me, Darry hadn't cleaned the house in ages. I really want to lay down and have a smoke but I can't, if Darry comes home and the house isn't clean and all that garbage he said to do, he'll kill me.  
  
I didn't even know where to start. I started by figuring out what to do for dinner. I love to cook so that was the easy part for me. I looked through the icebox and didn't find as much as I thought we had. I guess Darry hadn't gone to the store in ages either.  
  
I decided to make fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and baked beans. Yum. I guess I should start some laundry. I went down in the basement and grabbed some random things and threw them into the washing machine. Where is the detergent? There's three bottles of stuff down here, how am I supposed to know what to use? I closed my eyes and grabbed a random bottle and splashed some in the washer.  
  
I came back upstairs, laid down on the couch and turned the TV on. I figured I had time to rest my eyes before I had to clean the house and start dinner.  
  
~~~  
  
"Zeta! Zeta, wake up!!"  
  
I opened my eyes. Man, what a refreshing little rest, but what on earth was Ponyboy doing home? It couldn't be more than 11:30.  
  
"What are you doing home," I asked?  
  
"It's 3:30," he said.  
  
"Oh," I said laying down. 3:30?!?!  
  
I jumped up. "Oh my God!!! Darry is going to be home in an hour and a half!" I screamed.  
  
"And you're failing math?" Two-Bit asked sarcastically.  
  
"You don't understand, he told me I had to clean the house and do the laundry and make dinner by the time he got home," I said.  
  
"We'll help," Pony said.  
  
"Speak for yourself," Two-Bit said and went into the kitchen to get a beer.  
  
I started picking up random things and putting them away, frantically trying to hurry. Johnny and Pony helped too, they started cleaning the kitchen while I worked on the living room and the dining room. Two-Bit sat on the floor watching cartoons drinking his beer. "You're not helping," I said to him. "So you noticed," he said. I grabbed his beer from him. "Hey!" he shouted.  
  
We continued working frantically until it was finally time to start dinner.  
  
Two-Bit came into the kitchen. "I heard you got in a fight," he said.  
  
I nodded, trying to peel potatoes as quickly as possible. He pulled a knife out of the drawer and helped. "How come?"  
  
"This soc bumped into me in the hall and then said "watch it, you filthy bitch". So I broke her nose."  
  
Two-Bit tried not to laugh, but I could tell he thought it was funny.  
  
"Darry's not gonna be real happy about this, I reckon," he said.  
  
"Yeah, I reckon not," I said, sarcastically mimicking him.  
  
It seemed like just minutes later, Darry pulled up into the driveway. I saw Soda and Steve hop out of the truck and towards the front door. I wasn't quite finished with dinner, the baked beans were still in the oven with 10 minutes left to go and the potatoes were still cooking.  
  
Darry walked in and I could hear by his footsteps he was going very slowly, surveying the house. He came into the kitchen.  
  
"Smells good in here," he said.  
  
"Thanks. Not quite ready yet, I tried, I'm sorry."  
  
"It's okay," he said. He went down the hall to his room and re-appeared a few minutes later in his black t-shirt. He went downstairs, probably to check the laundry. The laundry!! I forgot all about it. I could hear him laugh softly to himself and then I heard the washing machine go on. I didn't hear the dryer though. Then I heard his footsteps coming back up the stairs and back into the kitchen. "Remind me to never have you do laundry again," he said.  
  
"I'm sorry, I totally forgot about it, and."  
  
"Well, that's a blessing in disguise, you didn't add the laundry detergent, you washed everything with bleach." He held up a white t-shirt, now turned blue. I was shocked, I didn't know what to say. "It's okay," he smiled.  
  
A few minutes later, everything was done and we sat down to eat. Steve went home but Johnny and Two-Bit stayed and Dally had just walked in the door so he joined us for dinner too. We ate in silence; I think they all know that I got into trouble today. I know Soda knows, Darry tells him everything.  
  
When we finished eating, Darry looked at me. "Go up to your room, I'll be up in a minute."  
  
I nodded and walked up to my room. 


	3. Another Fight

I really didn't know what to expect, Darry had seemed so mad earlier but when he came home, he seemed calm and was even laughing about the laundry. I grabbed a cigarette and started smoking. Just then I heard Darry coming up the stairs. I sat down on the edge of my bed. He came in and shut the door behind him.  
  
"Put that out," he said. I grabbed the ashtray off my dresser and put it out.  
  
"Now, let's start at the beginning. Why did you get in a fight?"  
  
"Well, fight is really an overstatement, it was more of a...a..an incident."  
  
"Get to the point," he said.  
  
"Well I was walking down the hallway this morning, minding my own business, when this soc girl bumped into me. Then she said 'watch out, you filthy bitch!"  
  
"And?"  
  
"And I broke her nose."  
  
Darry rubbed his forehead. "Blood was dripping down onto her dress, and I said 'who's filthy now, bitch!"  
  
I could hear Dallas in the hall laughing. Darry got up and opened the door. "Don't encourage her," Darry said.  
  
He stopped. "A response like that don't need no encouragement."  
  
Darry shut the door again.  
  
"And geometry?" he asked.  
  
"What about it?"  
  
"You're failing."  
  
"Yeah, and?"  
  
"Zeta Claire Curtis, this is not a game. You are in a lot of trouble. Stop trying to act tough and tell me the truth."  
  
I rolled my eyes. "I'm not smart, that's all there is to it," I said.  
  
"That is not all there is to it," he said. "You just don't try, that's your problem. You used to do okay in school, I know you will never be a straight-A student, and I don't expect you to be, but I do expect you to try. You haven't even tried lately. Ever since mom and dad died-"  
  
I cut him off right there. "Don't you even try to bring that up!" I screamed. I was surprised at my own voice. "Don't you talk about them, they have nothing to do with this!"  
  
"Calm down," he said.  
  
"I won't calm down, I'm tired of this. You are always yelling at me about my grades, but who cares? You do, nobody else does, including me! I hate school, I'm miserable there and I hate it! I'm gonna drop out anyways, why not just let me do it now!"  
  
"You are NOT dropping out," he shouted.  
  
"Why not?" I screamed right back. "You let Soda do it and he's doing just fine. You said yourself I'm never going to be an A student, so you admit that I'm dumb."  
  
"That does not mean you are dumb-"  
  
"That's not the point, the point is that I don't want to go anymore."  
  
"Well you have to."  
  
"Why? Because you said so?"  
  
"That's exactly why," he said in a very stern voice. "No more fights, no more failing school, no more skipping school, I can't deal with this anymore, you need to grow up, Zeta."  
  
I knew that I had already gone way too far but I didn't care anymore.  
  
"You need to stop trying to be Dad, you will NEVER be him, not EVER!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.  
  
Darry, who had been towering above me, reached his hand back like he was about to slap me.  
  
"Go ahead!" I shouted. "Go ahead, hit me, do it! DO IT! I dare you, I FUCKING DARE YOU!!!" I raised up my fist. "You hit me and I'll hit you right back, and you know I will."  
  
I realized that the pain I was feeling was Darry, he had his hand wrapped around my throat and the other one in the air about to slap me. Tears started flooding my eyes. He let go and walked out of my room. 


	4. Epiphany

I stayed on my floor crying for about two minutes, and then I got up and brushed the tears out of my eyes. Darry was wrong and I knew it. I was still shaking; Darry and I had never been in this bad of a fight.  
  
I needed Dally. I think he left after Darry told him not to encourage me, whatever that meant. I had to see him, he would tell me Darry was wrong, he would tell me that I'm right; he would see where I'm coming from.  
  
Quietly I got up and went into Darry's room. I didn't turn the light on because his room is right across from the stairs and I didn't want anybody downstairs to know what I was doing. I fumbled around on his dresser and found what I was looking for: the spare key to the truck.  
  
I went back into my room, checking the stairs to make sure that nobody was coming up. I took the sheet off my bed, tied the end to my dresser and swung the other end out the window. I climbed down the sheet and jumped the last few feet, landing safely on the ground. I snuck around to the front of the house and peeked around the corner to see the window in the living room. I didn't see anybody, so I ran for the truck. I got in and shut the door quietly, put the key in and turned the truck on. I looked over at the house and saw Darry and Soda running to the front door. They saw me in the truck and started running towards me. I put the truck in drive and sped away.  
  
I had a good 10 minute drive to get where I was going but I knew I had to hurry, Soda would know where I was headed. I sped up a little.  
  
Who did Darry think he was? Why was he trying to control my life? He has told me so many times he wants me to go to college. I laughed out loud at the thought. College was Darry's dream, not mine. I almost started crying so I turned the radio on to take my mind off things.  
  
About 10 minutes later, I got to Tim Shepherd's house and parked the truck out front. I ran up to the door and started pounding on it. "TIM!!! TIM, LET ME IN!! C'MON TIM! HURRY!"  
  
Tim opened the door and looked at me. "What do you want, Shorty? Does your brother know you're here?"  
  
Darry didn't want me associating with Tim, but Tim and I had a really close bond. I wasn't scared of him like everybody else was, and I think he admired me for that.  
  
"No, he doesn't. Look, I don't have much time-"  
  
"Is that Darry's truck?"  
  
"Yes," I replied.  
  
"Did you take it here without Darry knowing?"  
  
"Yes, now is-"  
  
"Jesus, Zeta," he said, taking a drag on his cigarette.  
  
"Tim, I don't have time, is Dally here?"  
  
"Yeah, he's upstairs."  
  
I pushed Tim out of the way and ran up the stairs. Dally heard the noise and opened the door. "What are you doing here?" he asked.  
  
"I need to talk to you," I said, pushing him back into the room.  
  
We sat down on the bed and I turned to face him. "Darry and I got in a huge fight after you left. He won't let me quit school, and he yelled at me about getting in a fight, an' you heard the story, Dal, that wasn't my fault, that girl asked for it."  
  
"What does this have to do with me?" he asked, lighting a cigarette.  
  
"I need somebody to tell me that I'm not crazy and that I'm right in standing up to him, nobody else will say it," I said.  
  
Dally thought for a minute, puffing on his smoke. I wanted one so bad.  
  
"You aren't right, Z," he said. Almost everybody calls me Z for short. Like my name is so long.  
  
"What?" I couldn't believe what I had just heard. Dally was siding with Darry.  
  
"You are way out of line, and you need to go home and apologize to Darry right now. How the hell did you get here anyway, kid?"  
  
"I kinda took the truck," I said very quietly.  
  
"Oh man. You are so lucky Darrel hasn't beat the tar outta you yet."  
  
"I don't see why I should apologize," I said frankly.  
  
Dally rubbed his chin. "Let me try to explain this to you. In New York, I used to come home at 5 in the morning, dead drunk. Do you think my parents said anything to me?"  
  
I shook my head.  
  
"No, they didn't, and you know why? Because they didn't give a hang about me. They didn't care, so they let me get away with whatever I wanted."  
  
"Well Darry's not my dad," I replied in a very harsh tone.  
  
"You are so damn stubborn. He's not tryin' to be your old man; he's tryin' to keep you safe. If he overlooked the stupid stuff you do, you'd just keep on doing it anyway. Not that it does any good, everything he tells you goes in one ear and out the other."  
  
An idea was slowly forming in my mind.  
  
"So," I asked slowly, "you mean when he yells at me, he's doing it because he's scared that I might get hurt?"  
  
"She finally gets it," Dally said to no one in particular.  
  
Dally can't be right. That would mean that Darry actually cared about me, and that just can't be. He yells so much, all the time, if he was really worried, why wouldn't he just tell me?  
  
Like a ton of bricks, it hit me that Darry had told me. After Mom and Dad first died, he never yelled at me like he does now, he would always say "Z, please be home by 10," and when I came home at 11:30, he'd say "next time, please be home by 10".  
  
I had brought this on myself. Darry was just trying to help me, and I had just made his job harder. His job? Yes. yes, his job as my guardian. I started crying.  
  
"Nine months later, you figure it all out."  
  
I looked up at Dally. "Darry gave up everything so that you could stay together. He wanted to go to college more than anything, and he gave it up for you."  
  
I was beyond being able to control my tears. The door flew open and there stood Darry. I jumped up off the bed.  
  
"We're going home right now, Zeta," he said.  
  
He came over and grabbed my arm and we walked downstairs and out of the house. Two-Bit's car was outside, I guess that's how Darry got here. Darry opened the passenger side of the truck and I got inside. He shut the door and came over to the driver's side and got in and we pulled away. 


	5. Talking to Darry

I still can't believe that I didn't see this earlier. Darry actually does care about me. When he yells at me, he's scared that I'm going to get hurt or into trouble. He gave up his dream of going to college for me. I thought back to all the times I had come home late, gotten in trouble, and just plain didn't listen to him. I felt sick. Dally was right, I should apologize. Darry was just trying to protect me. He wants me to be safe.  
  
"Darry, I-"  
  
"I'm not ready to talk to you yet," he replied. I could hear the anger in his voice and decided I'd better not say anything the rest of the way home.  
  
I couldn't believe how wrong I was about Darry. It was really bothering me. I was still convinced that he was wrong about me going to school, but maybe if I walk to him, he'll understand. He's seen my grades.  
  
We finally arrived at home. I got out of the truck and started toward the house. Darry grabbed my arm. "Give me the key," he said. I reached into my pocket and handed him the spare key I'd taken from his dresser not more than an hour ago. We walked inside and he led me over to the stairs.  
  
"Go up to your room, and don't you even think about leaving again," he warned.  
  
I started up the stairs and Darry walked away. Soda looked up at me. "I can't protect you from this," he whispered.  
  
Soda had always taken up for me when Darry and I got into fights. "I don't expect you to," I whispered back.  
  
I sat on the edge of my bed and lit a cigarette. I could hear Darry and Soda downstairs talking, so I left my room and sat on the top of the stairs. They must have heard me because they suddenly stopped. I heard Darry's footsteps going towards the stairs. He peeked around the corner and saw me sitting at the top of the stairs smoking. He sighed and started up the stairs.  
  
I got up and went back into my room. After putting my cigarette out, I sat back down on my bed. Darry closed the door and arranged a chair so that he was sitting right across from me.  
  
He took a deep breath. "What the hell was so important that you had to go and steal the truck?"  
  
"I had to talk to Dally," I replied, looking down at my feet.  
  
"Why?" he snapped.  
  
I opened my mouth to talk but Darry leaned over and tilted my head up so I was looking at him.  
  
"I needed someone to tell me that I was right," I hesitated. "I needed him to tell me that you were wrong, that there's no reason I should stay in school.  
  
Darry sighed and rubbed his eyes.  
  
"But he didn't," I continued, looking down. "He said that I was wrong and that I needed to come home and apologize to you." I looked Darry in the eyes. "He made me realize everything you've given up for me, and that you really do care, and that when you yell at me, it's because you're tryin' to protect me, and help me, and I didn't know. Darry, I'm so sorry. I've been so terrible, I'm sorry, I didn't know." I started crying and buried my face in my hands. Darry sat on the bed next to me and put his arms around me. I buried my face in his arm and cried.  
  
"Why haven't you given up on me, Darry?"  
  
He let go and looked at me. "What do you mean?"  
  
"You coulda stuck me in some home, why do you keep putting up with me?"  
  
"I will never do that to you," he said softly, wiping the tears off my face.  
  
"I'll come home on time from now on," I said quietly.  
  
"And you'll stay in school, and no more fighting," he said.  
  
I thought for a second. "No."  
  
"Zeta," Darry pleaded.  
  
"Darry, come on, if somebody walks up to me and hits me, I ain't gonna walk away!'  
  
"No more fighting, Zeta, I mean it."  
  
"Darry, that's not fair! I have to defend myself. And I still think you're wrong about me havin' to stay in school."  
  
"Well, that's your opinion," he said calmly.  
  
"And me staying in school is your opinion. I hate school, Darry," I said.  
  
"C'mon Zeta. Isn't there anything you like about it?"  
  
"Yeah, when the bell rings at 3 and we get to leave," I replied.  
  
"You are not dropping out and that's final. No more fights either."  
  
"I can't not get in fights, Darry. That girl called me filthy, you woulda wanted me to leave her alone?"  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"NO!" I shouted. "She got what she deserved. Nobody says that to me."  
  
"No fights, no dropping out, no skipping class. Those are the rules, if you don't like them, you know where the door's at," Darry said.  
  
"You can't make me," I said, staring him in the eyes.  
  
Darry stood up and looked down at me. "You don't want to find out, Zeta. Those are the rules. You break them and you'll be punished. If you don't like it, then you can get out. You're grounded for four weeks."  
  
"Four weeks?"  
  
"One week for getting in a fight, one week for failing geometry, and two weeks for taking the truck."  
  
He turned and walked out of my room. I slammed the door shut, picked up an ashtray and threw it against the door. 


	6. Soda has an Announcement

I woke up the next morning and looked at the clock. It was 9:30. No school!! I could hear the TV on downstairs so I figured somebody was home. I went down and saw Soda on the couch.  
  
"What are you doing home?"  
  
"Day off," he said. I went to the kitchen and got some chocolate milk.  
  
"Where'd you learn to drive anyways?" he shouted.  
  
"You'd rather not know," I said, sitting down next to him. Truth was, Two- Bit got totally drunk one night while Darry was working late. He came over and decided to teach me how to drive. Nobody ever knew, and I never told Darry or Soda because I didn't want them to get mad at him.  
  
"Darry said you have to do your homework, you have an English essay due Monday and he wants it done by the time he gets home," Soda said.  
  
"He grounded me for four weeks," I said.  
  
"I know, he told me. Ya know, if you hadn't taken the truck, he prolly wouldn't have been so tough on you."  
  
"I still don't get why I have to stay in school," I said.  
  
"Zay (another nickname), Darry just wants to do what is right for you."  
  
"What if that's not right for me? You seen my report cards, they aren't good."  
  
"He's doing what Mom and Dad would have wanted."  
  
"Nobody cares what I want," I responded.  
  
Soda sat quietly for a minute. "If you promise not to tell, I'll take you up to Dairy Queen for lunch," he said.  
  
"Okay," I said.  
  
"You gotta promise me you'll write one page of your essay first though, okay?"  
  
I started to protest. "Zay, please? Darry'll be real upset if he comes home and your essay isn't at least started."  
  
"Okay, okay," I promised.  
  
I sat down at the table and got out some blank paper. Who am I?  
  
I picked up a pencil and started writing.  
  
My name is Zeta Claire Curtis and I'm 14 years old.  
  
I stopped and started thinking about how to answer the question. An essay about who I am. Well, who am I? Nobody really ever asked me before.  
  
I continued writing. My parents are dead. Their car got hit by a train. Ever since, I've lived with my brothers. Darry is the oldest, he's 20. After the accident, he got a job roofing houses to take care of the rest of us. My other brothers are Sodapop and Ponyboy, and yes, those are their real names. Soda is almost 17, he quit school too to help Darry pay the bills. Ponyboy is my twin, he's 14. Sometimes I find it funny how different we all are. Darry is real serious, Soda always wants to have fun, Ponyboy always wants to read, and I always want to party. Darry always got real good grades, so does Ponyboy, but Soda and I never got good grades. My grades bother Darry a lot, he always tries to get me to study and get good grades, but I never will. I don't do it to make him mad. I guess this don't answer your question of "Who am I?", but I just don't think I can answer your question, Mr. Riddenauer. I don't know who I am, and in my opinion, I'm too young to care. Who I am now isn't who I'm going to be tomorrow, who I'm going to be next year, or who I'm going to be in ten years. I am constantly being affected by the things that happen to me, and they've been happening so quickly that I can't remember who I am anymore. You once said that life's best adventure is getting where you are going. Why ruin it trying to figure out who you are when it really doesn't matter?  
  
I put my pencil down. I had written directly from my heart, and that was going to have to be good enough. It took up a little over a page. I smiled at my work and got up to take a shower.  
  
When I got out of the shower, I heard Soda talking then I heard Sandy's voice. I wrapped a towel around myself and ran up to my room. "Hey Sandy!" I called.  
  
"Hi Zeta," she said.  
  
Sandy is Soda's girlfriend, and the only girl I could probably ever stand to see any of my brothers with. She was beautiful, I was totally jealous of how pretty she was.  
  
I finished getting dressed, then fixed my hair and came back downstairs. I jumped onto the sofa next to Soda. The light was on in the bathroom so I figured Sandy was in there.  
  
"Did you finish the page of your essay?" he asked.  
  
"Yep, the whole thing," I said, beaming with pride.  
  
We watched television for a few minutes when I heard the bathroom door open. Sandy came out and she was crying uncontrollably. "What happened?" I asked, jumping up.  
  
Soda hugged Sandy and whispered something in her ear, and she started crying even harder.  
  
"What's going on?" I asked.  
  
Soda let go and turned to me. He sat down on the couch and Sandy sat next to him. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. He looked over at Sandy. "Can I tell her?"  
  
Sandy nodded, tears streaming down her face.  
  
Soda turned back to me. "Sandy's pregnant," he said.  
  
I could feel my jaw drop. I thought it would go right through the floor.  
  
"Oh my..congratulations!" I said, trying to be cheerful. Soda was going to be a father, and he was only 16.  
  
Knowing Soda as well as I did, I could tell he was happy but I knew Sandy wasn't. I had never seen her cry before, and they weren't tears of joy.  
  
"I'll give you guys a few minutes," I said, turning to go up to my room.  
  
"I have to go," Sandy said. She took a deep breath. "I have to go tell my parents."  
  
She got up and started walking towards the door. "I'll drop you off, you shouldn't be walking in your condition," he said. Tears welled up in her eyes when he said that.  
  
I guess Soda took Darry to work today, because the truck was outside. I got in the back of the truck and Sandy rode up front with Soda. When we got to her house, she got out of the truck and I jumped out too. I gave her a hug and she smiled at Soda and then went inside. Soda and I got back in the truck.  
  
"Can I drive?" I asked.  
  
He looked at me with a crazy grin. "I don't think so, Darry would kill me," he said. "He'll probably already kill me anyways when he finds out about Sandy."  
  
"I'm still shocked by it all," I said.  
  
"Me too," he said.  
  
We went to Dairy Queen and ordered, then sat down and ate at a table.  
  
"You're too young to be somebody's Dad," I said.  
  
Soda looked down at his food.  
  
"Do you want to talk about this?"  
  
"No," he said, taking a huge bite of his cheeseburger.  
  
I smiled and threw a fry at him.  
  
When we got home, we watched television for a while and then Soda and I started making dinner. He wanted to make some steaks, so we took some out of the freezer and started defrosting them.  
  
I started peeling potatoes and threw them in a pan with some water, then went out to have a smoke. When I came back, the water was totally blue.  
  
"SODA!" I shouted. "What did you do?!?!"  
  
He laughed. "It's just blue food coloring, it'll be fine."  
  
I looked over at him with that goofy smile on his face and I started laughing too. "Blue mashed potatoes," I said.  
  
Ponyboy, Johnny and Two-Bit came in the house and started snooping around the kitchen. "What is that?" Two-Bit said, pointing at the potatoes.  
  
"Blue mashed potatoes, you got a problem with that, greaser?" I asked, pointing my potato masher at him. He raised his eyebrow up at me and made the goofiest face and I started laughing.  
  
A few minutes later, one of Darry's buddies dropped him off. Soda saw him coming up to the house. "Listen, don't tell Darry, okay?"  
  
I nodded. Of course I wouldn't.  
  
Soda and I started putting the plates together, and decided to mold the mashed potatoes into little aliens. We got a kick out of it.  
  
We all sat down to eat, and Darry looked at the mound of potatoes. He cracked a rare grin, stuck his fork in and ripped his alien's head off.  
  
"Did you finish your essay?" Darry asked.  
  
"Yep," I said.  
  
"I wanna read it," he said.  
  
"You can't, it's personal," I replied.  
  
"You didn't do it, did you?" he asked.  
  
"I swear I did, but it's personal and I don't want you to read it."  
  
"Okay," he said. "Ponyboy, how was school?"  
  
"Curly Shepard got in a fight with this Soc and busted his head in," Pony said.  
  
"Ha," I laughed.  
  
Darry looked over at Soda. "Something wrong, little buddy?" he asked.  
  
Soda bit his lip. "Sandy's pregnant," he said.  
  
Two-Bit spit his beer out, and Pony's eyes got real huge.  
  
Darry put down his fork. "What?"  
  
"She's pregnant," he said softly.  
  
Darry stared at Soda, who was looking down at the table. I think he was about to cry.  
  
"Maybe we should go finish eating upstairs," I said.  
  
"Hell no, this got good!" Two-Bit said. I slapped the back of his head, and me, Pony, Johnny and Two-Bit went upstairs.  
  
"Whyd'ya hafta make us come up here, now we can't hear nothin," Two Bit groaned.  
  
"You can hear the best from up here," I whispered.  
  
We all listened.  
  
"Did you say she's pregnant?" Darry asked.  
  
"Yeah," Soda said.  
  
There was a long pause.  
  
"What are you gonna do now?"  
  
"I don't know," Soda said. "I was gonna ask her to marry me."  
  
"You're only 16," Darry said.  
  
"Well, what's done is done, I can't change it," Soda said. "I wanna make it right."  
  
"Didn't you guys use any kind of . protection?" Darry asked.  
  
"Yeah, that's what I don't get," Soda said.  
  
The phone rang. "Hello? Yeah, just a minute. Soda, it's for you."  
  
"Hello?" Soda answered the phone. "Y'all can stop eavesdropping and come downstairs," Darry called. Two-Bit grinned.  
  
We went downstairs and put our plates in the sink.  
  
"You can't leave," we all heard Soda say. I turned and looked at him with a bad feeling. "You can't just leave, what about me? Sandy, I want to marry you," he said quietly. He was quiet for a minute. "What do you mean? Then whose is it?" He was quiet again and then I saw a tear fall down his cheek. "But I loved you," he said. I heard the click on the other end of the phone and wanted to cry. Soda hung up the phone and turned to us. "It's not mine," he whispered. "It's not my baby," he said. He wiped a tear from his face and then went to his room, shutting the door behind him and locking it.  
  
Everybody stood quiet but I went down to his room and knocked on the door. "It's Zay, let me in," I said.  
  
"Not right now, okay?" I could hear him crying.  
  
I grabbed the knife out of my pocket and unlocked his door. A neat little trick Dallas had taught me.  
  
I locked the door behind me and sat down on the bed next to Soda. He sat up and looked at me with tears in his eyes. "I loved her, Zeta," he said.  
  
I threw my arms around him. "I know you did."  
  
"She cheated on me."  
  
"I know, I heard."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I don't know, Soda, I'm sorry."  
  
He cried on my shoulder. "I woulda married her," he said. "Her parents are making her move to Florida to live with her Grandma."  
  
"I'm so sorry," I whispered.  
  
Soda kissed me on the cheek. "Thanks, Zay, but please go now, I really want to be alone."  
  
I gave him another hug and then left, locking the door behind me.  
  
All of us felt sad for Soda, we all just sat around the house hoping he'd come out and be his same self, but he stayed in his room the rest of the night. 


	7. Friday Night at the Curtis House

Thank you to everybody who has submitted reviews, I'm so glad that you guys are into the story!!!! I'm constantly hoping for more reviews, so please review and let me know what you think of the story, good or bad, I would really appreciate it!!!!  
  
* * *  
  
I woke up at 10:00 the next morning, and again I heard the TV on. I went downstairs and saw Tim Shepard sitting on the couch. "What are you doing here?" I asked.  
  
"My old man kicked me out," he said. "He was mad I let Dally bring some broad up to his room. I imagine you got into a mess of trouble last night for taking your brother's truck."  
  
"Yeah, you could say that. Darry grounded me for four weeks."  
  
"Curly said you got into a fight at school. Said you broke some girl's nose."  
  
I nodded.  
  
Tim smiled. "That's my girl. Well, the old man should be gone by now, I'm heading home. Later, Z." He got up and left.  
  
I walked by Soda's room to see if he went to work, and he was gone so he must have. I felt so bad for poor Soda, he loved Sandy so much, and then she tells him that she's having somebody else's baby. I started getting very angry thinking about it. Soda loved Sandy, but apparently she loved somebody else. I put my sweater on and decided to walk to her house to see if she was home.  
  
She came to the door, still in her pajamas. Her eyes were puffy and red. I went inside and saw suitcases all over the floor.  
  
"My parents are making me move to Florida. I have to stay with my Grandmother," she explained.  
  
"Soda told me. I wish I could say I'm sorry, but I'm not," I said. "Soda loved you so much, how could you do this to him?"  
  
Tears fell down her face. "I love him too. This was an accident, Zeta, it wasn't supposed to happen."  
  
"Well it did," I said coldly.  
  
"I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt your brother, I made a huge mistake. Is he upset?"  
  
"Of course he's upset, you ripped his heart out!" I said loudly.  
  
"Tell him I'm sorry, okay Zay?"  
  
"Tell him yourself, I'm not gonna be your messenger." I got up and walked out the door.  
  
I started walking back home. She had a lot of nerve asking me to tell Soda she's sorry. Having somebody else's baby calls for more than an 'I'm sorry'. I was really upset when I got home. I went to the kitchen and found an envelope on the table. I opened it up and saw a note inside from Darry.  
  
Zeta, here is $20, go to the market and get what we need. Clean your room today too, it's a mess.  
  
Get what we need. I opened the fridge. There ain't much we don't need. I grabbed a pencil and wrote down the things we were almost out of: bread, milk, eggs, oil, flour, sugar. I made myself a sandwich and left for the store.  
  
We were almost out of beer, but of course I couldn't buy it. I would tell Two-Bit when he got home and he'd probably go get it right away. He wasn't old enough but he always managed to buy it anyway. He had a real way with people.  
  
I was at the store picking up what we needed and I found a bottle of haircolor. It was called ruby, a deep red color. My hair now naturally is red but it's such a dark red it looks brown. When I was younger, Steve used to tell me that I was adopted and I believed him because my hair is so much different from everybody else's. The color on the outside of the box looked like a bright red mixed with black, it was a dark but vibrant red. It was $3, and that's just how much money I had. Perfect!  
  
I got home from the store and put all the food away, then opened a beer and read the instructions on the hair color kit. I didn't drink beer very often, Darry found out once and grounded me, but I decided to have one now.  
  
I followed the instructions and mixed the colors and put the liquid on my hair. I had to leave it sit for half an hour, and then I rinsed it out, combed it and dried it. It was dark but a vibrant red, not the dull red my hair had been before. I loved it!  
  
I went upstairs and cleaned my room. Ponyboy came home and came up to my room. "Hey sis, you-whoa! What happened to your hair?"  
  
"I colored it! Whatcha think?" I asked.  
  
"It looks pretty tuff," he said. "You got a smoke I can have?" I threw him a pack of cigarettes from my dresser, then took one and lit it for myself.  
  
"Johnny and me are goin' to the movies with Dally tonight, you wanna go?"  
  
I frowned. "I'm grounded, remember?"  
  
"Oh yeah, I forgot."  
  
I was growing tired of cleaning my room. "You wanna help me make dinner?" I asked.  
  
He shrugged.  
  
We went downstairs and sifted through the food. Ponyboy suggested a giant pot of spaghetti with meatballs. It was Friday so most of the gang would be over for dinner.  
  
At 5:30, Darry, Soda and Steve came home from work. Steve and Soda sat down on the couch to rest and Darry came into the kitchen to see what was for dinner.  
  
"Hey, Zay, did you-WHAT DID YOU DO?" Darry shouted.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Your hair," he said. He came over and looked at it closer.  
  
"Oh! I colored it. It's called ruby," I said. "Do you like it?"  
  
"Not really," Darry said. I threw a towel at him. We sat down to dinner and just as I suspected pretty much everybody was here. Only Dally was missing.  
  
"Zay, I think your hair is on fire," Steve said jokingly.  
  
"I've never known a real redhead who dyes her hair even redder," Two-Bit observed, raising an eyebrow at me.  
  
Everybody laughed. I threw a piece of bread at him. "You're almost as funny as you look."  
  
"Hey Soda, the rodeo is in town this weekend, you wanna go?" Darry asked.  
  
"No, that's okay," he said.  
  
After dinner, Pony and Johnny left to go meet Dallas. I wished I was going to the movies. Darry and I did the dishes while Steve tried to convince Soda to go to a party.  
  
"Did you clean your room?" Darry asked.  
  
"Yeah," I said.  
  
"Good. I really don't like your hair like that."  
  
"I really don't care," I said. I didn't care what Darry thought, I liked it.  
  
"Did you really write that essay yesterday?"  
  
"Yes, I told you I did."  
  
"Just checking," he said.  
  
I went out to the living room where I guess Steve had finally convinced Soda to go to that party. It was just going to be Darry and me home alone.  
  
Darry stretched out in the armchair, put his feet up and started reading the paper. I sat down on the side of it. He looked up at me. "Something wrong, Zay?"  
  
"No," I said. Actually, yeah there was. "I love you, Darry," I said.  
  
He put his paper down and looked up at me with a puzzled look. "You do?"  
  
I nodded. "I'm sorry about all the fights we got into Wednesday."  
  
He grabbed me around the waist and pulled me down by him. I put my head on his chest. "Me too," he said. "I love you too, Zeta."  
  
I laid there listening to his heart beating and I fell asleep.  
  
***  
  
"Do you know what time it is?" I heard Darry shout. I opened my eyes and instinctively looked at the clock. "It's two o'clock in the morning!"  
  
I looked around. Ponyboy was standing by the door.  
  
"Hey, Pony, where ya been?" Soda asked.  
  
"I fell asleep in the lot," Pony said, walking towards the bathroom.  
  
I don't ever remember Pony coming home so late. I was tired and didn't feel like listening to them shout so I started walking towards the stairs. Suddenly I heard Ponyboy shout at Darry and looked over at him just in time to see Darry turn and slap Pony. I was so shocked I couldn't even do anything as Pony ran past me and out the front door. Darry and Soda ran to the door.  
  
"Ponyboy, I didn't mean to!" Darry shouted.  
  
I knew Pony was long gone without even having to look, he's a fast runner.  
  
Soda closed the door. "I didn't mean to," Darry kept saying.  
  
"I know," Soda said. "Maybe we should go after him."  
  
"Let him go," I said. "He needs time to cool down; he'll come home when he's ready."  
  
"I didn't mean to," Darry said. 


	8. Teen Found Dead in Empty Lot

I came downstairs Saturday morning to see everybody sitting around the table.  
  
"He didn't come home last night," Darry said. "Do you know where he is?"  
  
I shook my head.  
  
Darry handed me the newspaper, and in huge letters was the headline:  
  
Teen Found Dead in Empty Lot on North Side  
  
I started reading the article.  
  
18-year old Bob Shelton was found murdered in an empty lot on the north side of Tulsa. He had been stabbed to death.  
  
"So?"  
  
"Zay, that's the empty lot down the street," Two-Bit said. I glanced over at him.  
  
"So?"  
  
Nobody spoke. Then it dawned on me what they were thinking.  
  
"Ponyboy didn't kill anybody," I said.  
  
"Johnny's missing too," Steve said quietly.  
  
"Johnny wouldn't kill anybody. Some kid dies and you guys get all uppity." I walked to the kitchen and got something to drink.  
  
Dally walked in the door and everybody looked up at him. Darry threw the newspaper at him. "What do you know about this? Pony and Johnny are both missing, did they have anything to do with this?"  
  
Darry glanced at the newspaper. "I don't know nothin' about no Soc dyin."  
  
I stopped. "You're lying," I said.  
  
Dally looked at me.  
  
"You said Soc. How did you know he is a Soc?"  
  
"I recognized the name in the paper," Dally said.  
  
"Then what is it?" I asked, grabbing the paper from him.  
  
Dally thought for a second. "Uh . . . Charlie?"  
  
"Where are they, Dally?" Darry asked.  
  
"Look, I dunno, all right?" he replied.  
  
"You're lying!" I shouted.  
  
"I don't have to take this," he said, storming out the door.  
  
We spent all day Saturday and all day Sunday waiting for Pony and Johnny to come home, but they didn't. Soda broke down and started crying Sunday afternoon, but I could tell it bothered Darry more than Soda. Darry barely ate anything; I could tell he blamed himself for it.  
  
None of us believed Dally that he didn't know where Pony and Johnny were. Soda gave him a letter and told him that if he just happened to see Ponyboy to give the letter to him.  
  
Dally grinned. "What makes you think I'm gonna see him?"  
  
Soda shrugged and walked away, but Dally took the letter anyways.  
  
Monday morning came and I had to go back to school. The hallways were buzzing about Pony and Johnny and that dead Soc.  
  
"Hey greaser!"  
  
I turned around.  
  
"Your brother and that kid killed my friend. I got a huge problem with that."  
  
I dropped my books. "My brother didn't kill nobody," I said.  
  
"I was there, I saw it. That dark-haired kid killed him."  
  
"Then he musta deserved it," I said, taking a step forward so I was right in his face.  
  
"Look, I ain't about to hit a girl," he said.  
  
"Then I guess you got two problems."  
  
I clenched my fists and prepared to fight. The guy looked shocked. I could feel my face burning. Suddenly I remembered what Darry had said. No more fighting. Even he could understand this, but I knew he'd be furious if I got into a fight this soon after being suspended. I hadn't even been in school for twenty minutes!  
  
I picked my books up. "You ain't worth it," I said, looking him dead in the eyes, and then I walked away.  
  
The rest of the day, all I kept hearing was people whispering behind my back 'her brother killed Bob'. By second period, I was tired of it all.  
  
I turned in my English essay and took my seat. During class, I saw Two-Bit and Steve walking by my classroom. They saw me and then backed up. Two- Bit took out his lighter and made a huge flame, nodding towards me.  
  
I raised my hand. "I don't feel good, can I go see the nurse?"  
  
Mr. Riddenauer nodded. I picked up my books and met the guys out in the hall.  
  
"What are you two doing?"  
  
"We're ditching class and going to see Soda," Two-Bit said.  
  
"Count me in," I said. We left the school and walked up to the gas station. Soda was working on a car.  
  
"Hey," we greeted him.  
  
"Hey y'all," he said. He got up from beneath the car and went inside the lobby. Two-Bit and I jumped up and sat on the counter.  
  
"I don't wanna go back to school, Soda," I said.  
  
"Zay, you have to," he said.  
  
"Please, don't make me, I already almost got in a fight. Some Soc came over to me and said that Pony and Johnny killed his friend and he had a problem with that, and then we almost got into a fight. Everybody is talking about it, and I'm tired of hearing it."  
  
"Just keep a cool head, Zay, don't get in a fight, Darry would be real upset." Soda said.  
  
"I'll keep my eye on her," Steve said.  
  
"Zay, you'd better go back, don't get caught skipping class, okay?" Soda said.  
  
I rolled my eyes and Steve and I started to leave.  
  
"You coming?" Steve asked Two-Bit.  
  
"Nah, I'll catch y'all later."  
  
Steve and I started walking back to school.  
  
"I'm serious; I don't wanna go back, Steve. I am gonna end up gettin' in a fight, I know it. I can't ignore all the things people are saying."  
  
"Darry'll bust your head in if you get in another fight, so just try to let it go. I'm sure Pony and Johnny are fine, and they'll be home soon."  
  
"Who are you tryin' to convince, me or you?"  
  
Steve looked away. "Both of us," he said.  
  
We finally got back to school and I barely made it through until lunch. Steve met me outside and we had a smoke.  
  
"Do you think Darry would find out if I cut the rest of the day?" I asked.  
  
"Probably," Steve said.  
  
"I don't care, I'm going home," I said. I turned to Steve. "You comin?"  
  
"Sure," he said. We walked back home and the first thing I did was check Pony's room to see if he had been home. He hadn't.  
  
Two-Bit was home though; he apparently had made a run to the liquor store because the fridge was stocked with beer. I got one for myself and gave one to Steve. Two-Bit joined us and we watched some movie.  
  
At 2:00, Darry came home. I didn't even notice until he walked in the door.  
  
He plopped himself down on the couch next to me.  
  
"What are you doing here?" I asked.  
  
"I should be asking you the same thing. Your school called me and said that you hadn't been to your last four classes, and that Pony hadn't been to any of his. My boss heard me on the phone and asked what happened, so I told him and he told me to take the rest of today off."  
  
"That was nice of him," I said.  
  
Darry saw the beer in my hand and took it away. "You shouldn't have skipped school, and you shouldn't be drinking this."  
  
"Darry, I had to get out of there. This Soc said that Pony and Johnny killed his friend. I almost got in a fight with him. Everybody was talking about it, I had to get away."  
  
Darry took a drink of the beer. I don't think I've ever seen him drink before.  
  
Steve and Two-Bit decided to go find Dally, thinking he might give in and tell them something.  
  
Darry finished his beer and then go up to clean the kitchen. He was washing dishes when I came in and sat on the countertop.  
  
"This ain't your fault," I said.  
  
Darry hung his head down.  
  
"It's not," I said. He stood in front of me.  
  
"I know," he lied.  
  
"No you don't," I said. "I can tell, you blame yourself for all of this."  
  
"Well, I was the one who drove him from home."  
  
"You didn't know all this would happen, and if you did, then you wouldn't have done it."  
  
"I still hate your hair like that," Darry said, trying to change the subject.  
  
I jumped down off the counter and gave him a hug.  
  
When Soda came home from work, we ate dinner and sat on the couch hoping Ponyboy would come home. Soda started crying, and then I started crying.  
  
The call finally came late Wednesday.  
  
"Hello?" Darry answered. "Yes, this is Darrell Curtis. You what? He is? Is he okay? Thank you, thank you so much!" Darry put the phone down and turned to us. "Ponyboy is at Tulsa Memorial Hospital!"  
  
The three of us ran to the truck. 


	9. Coming Home

The drive to the hospital took forever, and I started wondering if we'd ever get there. Darry parked the truck and we all ran inside. Darry asked the receptionist where he was and she directed us up to the fifth floor. As soon as we stepped out of the elevator, we saw Ponyboy sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette.  
  
He looked up and saw us and ran directly into Soda's arms. Soda swung him around and set him down. "Oh look at your tuff hair," he said. Pony's hair was blonde!  
  
"We missed you so much," I said, jumping into his arms. He hugged me and then let go, eyes focused on Darry. I didn't know how Pony was going to react to seeing Darry for the first time, so Soda and I both took a step back to watch.  
  
Please don't be mad at him, I thought to myself.  
  
Darry stood there with his fists in his pockets, looking at Ponyboy. I looked back at Pony. He was just standing there, looking at Darry. Do something, I thought.  
  
Darry looked down at the ground and I saw a tear fall down his cheek. He turned around and started to walk away.  
  
"Darry!" Pony shouted and ran to him. Darry caught him and wrapped his arms around him. Soda grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I smiled at him. We were both happy that they were okay.  
  
"So where on Earth have you guys been?" Soda asked.  
  
Ponyboy sat down and took a long drag on his cigarette. Darry sat down to his left, and Soda and I sat down to his right.  
  
"Johnny and me ran to the lot that night, and some Socs started following us. They tried to drown me, and Johnny stabbed one of 'em. We went to Dally and he told us to hop this train up to Windrixville, and we've been hiding out there ever since. Dally picked us up and we went back to the church we stayed in to get our stuff, and it was on fire, but there was a bunch of kids inside, so Johnny and me went in and started pulling them out of the fire."  
  
"Wow," I said. I was in sheer awe.  
  
"Johnny's seeing a doctor right now, so is Dally."  
  
"Listen, Pony, the night you left, I-" Darry began. He didn't get very far because a bunch of newspaper and TV reporters came running towards us. They started asking Pony a bunch of questions about what happened, and taking a whole bunch of pictures. One of them was staring at Sodapop and asked Ponyboy who we all were. He introduced us to the photographers and reporters, and they started taking pictures of all of us. They asked where our parents were, and when Ponyboy told them and I heard a few people gasp and then the questions flooded in about how we were staying together, and I was blinded with everybody taking pictures all at once. Soda grabbed my hand and lead me towards one of the cameramen standing in the back. I grabbed his camera and Soda grabbed a microphone and some guy's hat and we started walking along the hallway until we found Dally's room.  
  
"Mr. Winston!" Soda shouted, running into his room. "You've just been voted man of the year! What are you gonna do to celebrate?" Soda shoved the microphone in Dally's face.  
  
Dally grinned. "I'm gonna shove that microphone where the sun don't shine."  
  
Soda turned towards the camera I was carrying. "He's gonna shove it", he paused dramatically, "where the sun don't shine. GOOD NIGHT TULSA!" he screamed, just as the cameraman caught up to us and took the camera away.  
  
"Would you two get out," Dally said. I was too busy filming him that I barely noticed he was only wearing his underwear. I wasn't embarrassed or anything, I was used to seeing Soda, Steve and Two-Bit walk around the house clad in nothing but his boxer shorts, and so this didn't bother me.  
  
A doctor came in and told us to leave, so we went back into the hallway where they were interviewing Pony. He said he needed to be excused for a minute and went to the bathroom.  
  
About an hour later, the photographers and reporters left and it was just us sitting in the hallway. Soda and I both laid down. Darry saw a doctor walking by.  
  
"Excuse me, can you tell me anything about those two boys brought in, Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade?"  
  
"Well uh, unless you're immediate family, we're not supposed to say," the doctor said.  
  
"Look, these boys don't really have any immediate family, we're as close as you're gonna get," Darry said.  
  
"Let me see what I can do," the doctor said.  
  
He disappeared and Darry sat back down. Soda put his head in Darry's lap. About 15 minutes later, the doctor came back.  
  
"They'll both be fine," the doctor said. "They are being treated for some burns, nothing serious. They'll be released shortly."  
  
Darry thanked the doctor for the information, and a few minutes later, Johnny and Dallas strode out of their rooms towards us.  
  
I rushed to them and hugged them both.  
  
"Get offa me," Dally said. "Let's get outta here," he said, lighting a cigarette.  
  
We all went home and went to sleep. 


	10. The Rumble

"Zeta, wake up, time for school."  
  
I groaned and buried my head in my pillow. "Darry, come on, not today," I pleaded.  
  
"Zay, get up, you are going to school," he said.  
  
I got up and took a shower then got dressed. Ponyboy was dead asleep in his room.  
  
"Why don't he gotta go?" I complained.  
  
"He just got home; he needs some rest, he's been through a lot," Darry said, not even looking up at me.  
  
"So have we all, I'm going back to bed."  
  
"Zay," Darry warned.  
  
Two-Bit drove Steve and me to school. Like most days, I was totally uninterested in being there. I couldn't wait until it was time to go home. The day pretty much drug on, and then mercifully ended.  
  
When we got home, Johnny and Pony were outside throwing around a football.  
  
"PONYBOY! JOHNNYCAKE!" Two-Bit and Steve shouted, running towards them. Both Johnny and Pony had been sleeping when Two-Bit and Steve came over this morning, so this was the first time they were seeing them. I lit up a cigarette while they had their little reunion.  
  
"What do you guys want for your first real home-cooked meal?" I asked.  
  
Pony and Johnny looked at each other. "A home cooked meal," Johnny said, his face lighting up.  
  
"Johnny, you decide, what do you want?" Pony asked.  
  
"Man, I'd like some of your fried chicken just fine," Johnny said, looking at me. I did make a pretty wicked fried chicken. It was mom's recipe.  
  
"You got it," I said, smiling at Johnny.  
  
"Pone, you want anything special?" I asked.  
  
"Anything besides bologna," he said.  
  
"Done," I said.  
  
I went to the kitchen and started making dinner. The whole gang ended up coming over, and Johnny and Ponyboy ate more than I've ever seen them eat before.  
  
I ran upstairs to put my hair up and when I came back down, I heard Soda say something about a rumble.  
  
"Rumble? Where? When?" I asked. Everybody was silent.  
  
"What's going on?" I asked, turning to Soda.  
  
"There's gonna be a rumble Friday night, socs versus greasers," Soda said.  
  
"No way!" I said, growing very excited. Finally!  
  
"You're not going, Zay," Darry said.  
  
"Oh yes I am," I responded.  
  
"No, Zeta, I'm serious. You could get really hurt. Pony, you ain't going either."  
  
Pony squinted. "Darry, please?"  
  
"You ain't in that good of shape, you look weak," Darry said to Pony.  
  
"But Darry, this is huge, come on, I can't miss it," Pony said.  
  
"I'm not weak, I can't miss it either," I said.  
  
Darry appeared to be in deep thought for what seemed like forever. "Pony, you can go; Zeta, you're staying home. You're still grounded anyways," he said.  
  
"This is NOT FAIR!" I screamed. "This is like the biggest thing that has EVER happened, and I can't go?? Why, because I'm a girl? Darry, you know I can hold my own in fights!"  
  
"I know you can, Zay, but this is different. This is going to be worse than any fight any of us have ever been in," Darry said. "You're not going, that's final."  
  
"That's not fair!" I shouted again.  
  
"It's too dangerous," Darry said. It was his way of ending the conversation, and I knew by his tone that the topic was closed.  
  
I looked at Soda. "Sorry Zay," he said softly. "I don't think you should go, you could get hurt."  
  
"So could you," I said. I went up to my room. How could Darry tell me I can't go? I was serious when I said that this was the biggest thing ever, it's huge! I can't not be in this rumble! The Socs had affected my life just as much as anybody else's.  
  
I put my pajama pants on and lit a cigarette. Someone knocked on my door.  
  
"Who is it?" I asked.  
  
"It's me," Soda said. "Can I come in?"  
  
I opened the door and went back to my bed. He sat down next to me.  
  
"Don't be upset with Darry, okay? He really doesn't want you to get hurt."  
  
"But I won't. I'm a good fighter, you guys know that," I said.  
  
"We know you are, but Darry's right, this is going to be a huge rumble, and it's just too dangerous. We could all get in a lot of trouble. Darry doesn't really even want Pony in it."  
  
"This is not fair," I said.  
  
"I know you want to be a part of this, but it would be better that you're not," he said.  
  
Soda was siding with Darry on this. I sighed and laid down.  
  
Darry stuck his head in the door. "I don't think it would be smart for you guys to go to school tomorrow, somebody might try to start some jazz before the rumble, and that's the last thing we need."  
  
I shrugged. Any excuse to get out of school.  
  
The next morning, I came downstairs to see Ponyboy and Two-Bit wrestling on the ground. I kicked Two-Bit in the shoulder lightly and tried to step over them but he let go of Pony and grabbed my leg, causing me to fall, and then grabbed my arm and pinned it behind my back.  
  
"Say uncle!" he shouted.  
  
"Nope!" I shouted back. I started squirming to try to break free and he tightened up his grip.  
  
"Now?" he asked.  
  
"No!" I gathered up all of my strength and rolled over on my other side, forcing Two-Bit to loosen his grip, and then I kicked him in the stomach. He let go. "I win," I said, walking towards the kitchen. Two-Bit laughed and then went back to wrestling Ponyboy.  
  
"Hey, y'all want to walk up to the gas station?" Two-Bit asked.  
  
"Sure," Pony said.  
  
"No thanks," I answered. I was still mad about not being in the rumble.  
  
Two-Bit laid off Pony and sat down next to me.  
  
"You shouldn't be mad at Darry," he said quietly.  
  
"Why does everybody keep saying that to me? I'm sick of hearing it!" I shouted. I grabbed my sweater and walked out the door. I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't really care. I walked for about half an hour.  
  
"Zeta!" I heard a familiar voice shout. I turned around to see Tim Shepard. "Where you goin?" he asked.  
  
I didn't even realize where I was. I was downtown, maybe half a mile from the DX station.  
  
"Just walking," I said. "What are you doing out here?" Tim lived pretty far from us.  
  
"Getting ready for the rumble tonight, man. It's gonna be huge," he said.  
  
"Yeah, I hear. Darry won't let me go," I said.  
  
"Smart man. Rumbles are no place for girls."  
  
"That is such bullshit, Tim. I can hold my own in fights, I'm a better fighter than Pony and he gets to go. Maybe I'll go anyways."  
  
"Do what Darry tells you to," Tim ordered.  
  
I flipped him off and walked away. I could hear him laughing behind me and I didn't care. I took out a cigarette. I might as well go see Soda while I was here. I hung out at the gas station for a few hours helping Soda work on the cars and then went back home.  
  
Darry and Soda left work early and came home to get ready for the rumble. I kept hoping Darry would change his mind, but he didn't.  
  
"So you're really not gonna let me go?" I asked him.  
  
"I'm really not letting you go," he replied. "It's too dangerous. Stay here, and stay otta trouble," he ordered.  
  
I sat down in a chair and watch them all leave for the rumble. I knew that if I went there, Darry would kill me, but at the same time, I couldn't resist, I HAD to be a part of this. I changed into a black t-shirt and left for the lot.  
  
When I got there, it was a big mess, everybody piled on top of everybody else, and it was raining so the ground was starting to turn into mud. I saw some Soc clobber Pony so I ran towards him. I grabbed the guy's arm and swung him around, knocking him square on the jaw. He stumbled backwards, and then looked at me. I guess he was surprised that he just got hit by a girl. He took a swing at me and I ducked, and then punched him right in the ribs. Someone hit me hard across the back and I fell onto the ground, disoriented for a few seconds. I rolled onto my back and got kicked right in the stomach. I clenched my teeth to keep from screaming, then kicked the back of the guy's knee, and he stumbled backwards, giving me enough time to get up. I kicked him in the head. Just after I did, someone else came up from behind me and I distinctly felt cold metal against my throat, which could only mean one thing: he had a knife. I grabbed the guy's hand and tried pulling it away from me but it wasn't working, he was too strong. I tucked my elbow in close to my body and thrust it backwards, hoping to nail the guy in the stomach. With his free hand, he grabbed it and pulled it behind my body, so I was now almost totally defenseless. I screamed for Darry, and he heard and looked over at me, then rushed over, but it was too late. The guy dug his knife in lightly and I felt a little bit of blood running down my neck. He let go and put the knife in his pocket before Darry reached him, and Darry punched the guy right in the stomach, and then another blow directly to his face. I saw Pony getting the living daylights beaten out of him, so I rushed over to him and jumped on the guy's back. He backed up and flipped me over his head onto the ground, then kicked me in the stomach, right where the first guy had kicked me. I cried out in pain, and he tried to do it again but I caught his foot and pulled him down onto the ground. I wondered if I was as covered in mud as he was. I slid over and sat on his back, forcing his face down into the mud and punched him a couple times in the middle of his back. When I got up, I was kind of dizzy. Someone punched me right in the face and then again in the stomach, in the exact same spot the other two had gotten me. I screamed in pain and the guy took advantage and did it again. I doubled over and fell on my knees, and the guy jumped on top of me, pinning me to the ground. He slugged me a few times in the stomach, sensing that he had hit my weak spot. I reached back, looking for something, anything to help defend myself, but all I could feel was mud. He stopped and suddenly I felt the skin on my stomach ripping open. He was cutting me open. As luck would have it, my hands landed on something hard and I picked it up and brought it down with all my might onto the guy's head. He dropped like a fly onto the ground. I felt somebody grab my arm and pull me away. I looked up. It was Tim. The next thing I knew, I heard somebody scream "Look at them run!" I came to and saw the Socs running to their cars. They were leaving. Two- Bit came over and helped Tim pick me up. I looked down at myself and I was covered in mud and blood was soaking through my shirt. I was mad, mostly because I really liked this shirt. The Socs are gone. We beat them. Everybody started cheering and screaming and celebrating.  
  
Two-Bit put his arm around me and helped me home, I was barely able to stand up straight because of the cut on my stomach and it was sore from all the time I'd been punched there. When we got home, I crawled upstairs and changed into a different t-shirt and some clean pants. Downstairs, Darry was playing doctor. He was bringing ice to Two-Bit to put on his hand, which I saw was busted wide open, and he brought ice to Steve, who had his shirt off and I could see his ribs were already turning blue. Soda was in the bathroom, putting a cold washcloth on his lip, which was busted open. Ponyboy didn't look too good either.  
  
"Go lay down on the sofa," Darry said. Why? I wondered.  
  
I laid down and he knelt down next to me with a bottle of alcohol and some cotton balls. "What are you doing?" I asked.  
  
"You're bleeding through your shirt," he replied, soaking the cotton with the alcohol. He pushed my shirt up a little and put the cotton ball against my skin. Instantly, I felt it sting. "You should have stayed home like I told you to, young lady," he said.  
  
"I couldn't," I said, wincing in pain from the alcohol.  
  
"This cut is pretty deep," Darry said, studying it carefully. He poured more alcohol onto the cotton and continued dabbing it into the cut. He lifted my shirt up a little more. "Zay, this is pretty bad, I should take you to the doctor. I think you may need stitches."  
  
"No," I said. "No doctor." I have always hated doctors, one of them was real mean to me once when I was a kid.  
  
"You really should get stitches," Soda said, walking by.  
  
"I'll be fine," I said. Darry dabbed on more alcohol and it started burning again. "Are you done yet?" I asked.  
  
He helped me sit up. "Be careful, that could split further open," he warned, putting a thick gauze bandage over it. I went into the bathroom and saw the shape and size of the cut from the bloodstains on my shirt, it was pretty long. It started at my belly button and went up about seven inches. It looked pretty tuff. 


	11. Pony Goes to the Hospital

I woke up early the next morning and tiptoed around Dally, who decided to make himself a bed right in the middle of the living room. I went into the kitchen and started making breakfast. I was starving. I turned the oven on and took out some leftover rolls that we had for dinner last night, those would make good cinnamon rolls.  
  
I went into the bathroom and took the gauze off that Darry put on my cut last night. It was much deeper than I thought it was. For a moment, I wondered if I really should have gotten stitches. Oh well.  
  
I went back to the kitchen, started some coffee and greased a bread pan, then tore up the rolls, tossing them loosely into the pan. I melted some butter and drizzled it over the roll pieces, then sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar and shoved them in the oven. While it was baking, I cooked up some sausage and bacon. I decided to make a glaze for the cinnamon rolls, so I took out some powdered sugar and milk and made a thin glaze, then stuck it in the fridge. The cinnamon bread was almost done so I started some eggs. Everybody liked their eggs done differently, so I ended up having every single burner going on the stove. Scrambled for me, Soda and Two-Bit, hard-boiled for Ponyboy and Darry, and sunny-side up for Steve, Dally and Johnny. My hands couldn't be fuller; I was stirring the scrambled eggs with one hand, and flipping the sunny side ones with the other hand.  
  
"Breakfast! Breakfast! Breakfast!"  
  
I looked up into the dining room and saw everybody sitting at the table. I had been so wrapped up with cooking that I hadn't even noticed they were all awake, let alone all sitting at the table chanting for breakfast. I poured Darry a cup of coffee, then poured a bit for myself and sipped it. Yuck. Darry said it was an acquired taste, but I was beginning to think I'd never acquire it. I brought him his coffee and then put a pitcher of chocolate milk on the table along with a glass for everybody.  
  
"Ahem," Two-Bit cleared his throat.  
  
"Oh, I'm so sorry, your highness" I said, going back to the kitchen. I brought him back what I knew he wanted: a beer.  
  
"The service here ain't that good, but the waitress sure is sassy," he said, loud enough for me to hear him.  
  
"The food here ain't that good neither, so I guess you don't want none of this," I said, setting a chocolate cake down on the furthest possible spot I could get it from him.  
  
Everybody laughed and grabbed a handful of cake. I hadn't set out the silverware yet, so they just used their hands instead. I laughed at the thought.  
  
I grabbed a handful of forks and knives and dropped them on the middle of the table, then set down a plate filled with biscuits and a bowl filled with gravy. I put everybodys' eggs on their plates and brought those out, hearing a comment about how slow the service was today, this time by Steve. I was coincidentally about to put his plate down, but I took it back to the kitchen.  
  
"Hey! That was my plate!" he shouted at me.  
  
"I know, there's not enough spit on it," I said. I took the cinnamon loaf out of the oven, it smelled great. I put the icing on top, carefully drizzling it to make a cute pattern, and then brought it out to the table, along with Two-Bit and Steve's plates.  
  
I love watching people eat food that I have cooked. The best way to get the most honest reaction is to watch them while they are eating.  
  
Darry looked up at me. "You should have stayed home like I told you to last night," he said, sipping his coffee.  
  
"I couldn't. I earned the right to be there, just like everybody else here," I said.  
  
"I didn't give you permission to go," he said.  
  
"Well I ain't apologizing," I replied. "I didn't do anything wrong." I really meant it; I was so confidant that I did the right thing. I knew Darry would probably ground me for going against his orders.  
  
"Pony, what's wrong, you've barely touched any of your food," Soda asked.  
  
"Nothing, I'm fine," he said. He was pushing his eggs around the plate with his fork, then put it down and looked up at Darry. "Do you know about the juvenile court thing?"  
  
Darry put his coffee down. "Yeah, the cops told me."  
  
"What juvenile court thing?" I asked.  
  
"November 17th, we all have to be there. We have to go talk to a judge about everything that's happened," Soda said.  
  
"It's because I ran away," Pony said quietly.  
  
"I'm sure everything will be fine, don't' worry" Darry said. He got up, took his plate into the kitchen and started washing the dishes.  
  
Ponyboy got up and walked away from the table, and a minute later we heard a loud thump in the hallway. Darry came back to the dining room. "Did you guys hear that?"  
  
We didn't hear any more noises so we went to the hallway where we heard it and Ponyboy was lying on the ground.  
  
"PONY!" Darry shouted. He knelt down next to Ponyboy and shook him gently. "Pony? Pony!"  
  
"Is he-"  
  
"No, he's breathing," Darry said, picking him up. "Somebody open the door," he shouted. Two-Bit opened the front door and Darry carried Ponyboy out to the truck. Soda sat in the back with Ponyboy in his arms and I jumped up in the front seat with Darry. Darry drove to the hospital and carried Pony inside. He talked to a nurse who pointed him down the hall. "Wait here," Darry ordered, following the nurse.  
  
Soda and I sat down and looked at each other. He started crying. "Oh, please don't," I said. I looked away and when I looked back at him, I started crying too. We waited for about 45 minutes before Darry came back.  
  
"He has a concussion," Darry said. "There's not much they can do, he has to sleep it out. They want to keep him here for a few days, just to make sure everything's okay."  
  
Soda started bawling again. Darry put his arms across Soda's shoulders and squeezed. "It's gonna be okay," he said softly.  
  
Darry brought us up to Pony's room and we saw him, lying in the hospital bed. Darry called the house and told Two-Bit what was going on, then hung up the phone.  
  
We set up camp in Pony's hospital room. Darry got a nurse to bring us some extra chairs, and we all sat. Darry just kept staring at Ponyboy with a helpless look on his face.  
  
Darry gave me a few dollars and told me to go to the gift shop and buy something to keep us occupied. I looked through the books and the magazines and didn't find anything.  
  
"Hey, greaser," I heard a familiar voice call. It was Two-Bit. He walked towards me along with Steve, Johnny and Dallas. "What are you doin?" he asked.  
  
"Tryin' to find something to do," I replied.  
  
"Lemme help," Two-Bit said. He glanced around and stuck two packs of cards into his sleeve. I laughed. Two-Bit had plenty of money to pay for them; he just stole for fun. I led them up to Pony's room, and Darry retrieved some more chairs.  
  
"You didn't have to come up here," Darry said.  
  
"We know," Two-Bit said. "Look, Darry, this is my fault. I'm so sorry, he was running a fever the day of the rumble and Ididn't say nothin, and now he's in the hospital and it's my fault."  
  
"It ain't your fault, don't worry about it," Darry said.  
  
Steve and Soda set up a poker table in the corner and all of us but Darry sat down to play.  
  
We were in the middle of our sixth round when we heard Pony start shouting.  
  
"Soda! Soda!!"  
  
Soda jumped out of his chair and ran to the bed. "Pony, I'm here!" he said.  
  
Pony didn't respond, he just kept shouting Soda's name.  
  
"I'm here," Soda said, louder than the first time. "Pony, I'm here!"  
  
Pony turned his head and stopped shouting.  
  
A nurse came in. "What's all the commotion?"  
  
"He was shouting for me, he kept saying my name," Soda said.  
  
"He's delusional, he's basically in a dream that he can't wake up from."  
  
"Can't wake up from?" Soda asked.  
  
"Eventually, he will, but his body is in shock right now and it is in a way forcing him to rest," she explained. "Speaking of rest, I hope y'all don't plan on staying here all night, or you won't get any rest either. Call us if you need anything," she said, smiling warmly and walked out the door.  
  
We spent the rest of the day in the hospital with Pony, and then around 10:00, Darry told Soda and me to go home and get some rest.  
  
"What about you?" I asked, barely able to keep my eyes open anymore.  
  
"I'll sleep in this chair. Somebody should be here and you two look beat," Darry said. "Go home and rest."  
  
Darry gave Soda the keys to the truck and we went home.  
  
"He's gonna be okay, right Soda?" I asked, leaning my cheek on the window.  
  
"Sounds like it," Soda said, yawning.  
  
"That nurse was pretty cute, you should ask her out. She was real pretty."  
  
Soda looked over at me. "You're crazy," he said. I went right upstairs to my bed without even taking my clothes off.  
  
The next day, Soda and I ate breakfast and went back to the hospital. We found Darry sitting in the chair asleep.  
  
Soda woke him up. "Hey," he said.  
  
Darry rubbed his eyes. "What time is it?"  
  
"10," Soda said. "Do you wanna go back home and rest, we can stay here with Pony," he said. "You don't look like you got much sleep."  
  
"I didn't," he said. "Pony was talking a lot last night. He kept asking for all of us-for mom and dad, and the three of us, and the guys too. He kept saying he hated balogna."  
  
"Go home and get some sleep," Soda said.  
  
"No, I'll be okay. I'm going to go down to the cafeteria and eat something though, you guys want anything?"  
  
I shook my head. "I'll be back," Darry said.  
  
I sat down on Pony's bed next to him. I looked down at him and a shiver ran up my spine. I felt weird, like he was going to just open his eyes any minute and be okay.  
  
A few minutes later, Darry came back and sat back down in his chair. He was asleep again within 10 minutes.  
  
Eventually, the rest of the gang showed back up and we all started playing poker again. We pretty much passed the day playing poker.  
  
At about 6:00, a doctor came into the room and went to Darry.  
  
"He seems to be fine, there are no significant problems, and so there really isn't much more we can do for him. I'm going to let you take him home, just keep him in bed, and warm."  
  
"How much longer is he going to sleep?" Soda asked.  
  
The doctor shrugged. "I don't really know. If he's not conscious by Wednesday, bring him back." The doctor gave Darry some forms to fill out.  
  
Over the next couple days, Soda and Darry took turns staying home from work to stay home with Pony in case he woke up. Occasionally he would shout for Darry and me and Soda, and sometimes Mom and Dad or Two-Bit, Dally and Johnny, but most of the time he just slept. 


	12. Juvenile Court

Authors Note: Thank you so much for all of the reviews and support. Sorry I'm rushing the Ponyboy angle but I wanted to get to the courtroom scene. By the way, I'm making these chapters up as I go along. I have no general plan for this story. Whenever I post a chapter, I just wrote it that same day. Hope that explains some of the plot jumps.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
I thought I was all alone. It was two in the morning. I had barely slept at all. I had been trying for hours to find a comforting thought to make myself go to sleep, but nothing was working. My first comforting thought was that we had beaten the Socs, but that made me think of that Soc getting killed, that lead to Pony and Johnny running away, and that of course lead to the juvenile court thing, which was in eight hours.  
  
Pony had woken up from his coma about a week ago. He was starting to go back to normal.  
  
I suddenly found myself being very angry with my parents for dying. I started crying then because I didn't want to hate them. I had loved my parents so much but inevitably, it was their death that caused all of this.  
  
"Zeta?" Darry poked his head in through my door and turned the light on. He saw the tears rolling down my cheeks and sat down next to me. "What's the matter?"  
  
I buried my face in his arm and continued crying and he squeezed my shoulders. "What's wrong, Zay?"  
  
I just kept crying into his arm. It felt so good to just let everything out. I hated crying in front of Darry, but somehow he always had the words to make me feel better.  
  
"I just started thinking about everything that's goin on," I said. "Darry, do you ever wonder what things would be like if Mom and Dad never died?"  
  
"No, not really," Darry said. "They're gone, Zay, and we can't do anything about it. If I thought about 'what if they hadn't' every time something happens, I'd probably go crazy. I try to focus on making things better for the future, not trying to relive the past."  
  
"Do you think they are gonna separate us?"  
  
Darry was quiet for a minute. "I don't know, baby." He lowered me back onto my bed and covered me up with my blanket. "Get some sleep, okay?"  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
The next morning, we all dressed up in our nicest clothes. We pretty much were silent and I knew everybody was thinking that this could be our last meal together. The thought made me so sick that I barely ate anything.  
  
When we got to the courthouse, we found our room and sat outside.  
  
"Can I go have a cigarette?" Pony asked.  
  
"No, you can't," Darry said.  
  
"C'mon, Darry, please?" I pleaded. I could use one too.  
  
"No, the judge could call our case any minute. Remember you guys, whatever happens, just be honest, okay?"  
  
We had heard the lecture about the importance of being honest in the courtroom all week; I was tired of hearing it.  
  
We waited for about half an hour before they finally called Darry into the room. They shut the door behind him. He was in there for about another half an hour, then they called Soda in and he was only in there for maybe 15 minutes, and then they called me in. By this time, I was mad that Darry didn't let me have a cigarette, I was shaking and nervous. Some cop led me up to the witness stand. I had never been in a courtroom before, but I'd read books about them and stuff.  
  
I had to promise to tell the truth and then the judge started asking me questions.  
  
"Please state your name for the record."  
  
"Zeta Claire Curtis."  
  
"Good morning, Ms. Curtis," the judge said, turning to me.  
  
"Hi," I said.  
  
"How old are you, Zeta?"  
  
"Fourteen," I said.  
  
"And you've been living with your brothers since your parents passed away?"  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"And how do you like living with them?"  
  
"Well I like it just fine, I don't know what I'd do without them."  
  
"Do you stay out of trouble?"  
  
I kind of panicked inside. Darry had said to be honest.  
  
"Well, I try to, but sometimes I get in trouble."  
  
"Such as?"  
  
"Well, I don't always come home on time like Darry tells me to, and my grades aren't real good."  
  
"What kind of grades do you get?" The judge started shuffling through some papers and I figured he probably had a report card of mine in front of him so I decided to tell the truth.  
  
"Mostly C's and D's," I said. "I'm not as smart as Darry."  
  
"What does Darry say about your grades?"  
  
"He says he knows I can do better, and he's been looking over my homework. He finds my mistakes and explains them to me."  
  
"And when you do get in trouble, does Darry punish you?"  
  
"It depends; sometimes he'll just talk to me about what I did, and sometimes he'll ground me for a week or two."  
  
"Do you think Darry is a good guardian?"  
  
"Yeah, I do."  
  
"Would you like to continue living with him?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Thank you, Zeta. You may go sit with your brothers now," the judge said, smiling at me.  
  
That was it? That was all?? I got up and the cop guy led me over by Darry and Soda.  
  
"You did real good, Zay," Darry whispered. I sat down next to him and he squeezed my hand. Then they called in Ponyboy.  
  
He had to promise to tell the truth and say his name too.  
  
"Ponyboy, the night you ran away from home, what happened?"  
  
Ponyboy took a deep breath. "Well, I fell asleep in this lot down the street from our house, and when I woke up, I went right home. It was 2 in the morning, and Darry wasn't real happy about me not being home yet. We got in a fight and he," Pony paused. "He slapped me, but he didn't mean to. I was scared so I left, and my buddy and I ran to this park. Some kids followed us, and they tried to drown me, but Johnny stabbed one of them."  
  
It had only been like three weeks, but it felt like forever.  
  
"Then what happened?"  
  
"Well, we had to hide, so we hopped a train and stayed out of town until things blew over, and then we came back home."  
  
"What about the church?"  
  
"Oh yeah, before we came home, we went back to the church we were hiding out in, and it was on fire, but a bunch of little kids were inside. Me and Johnny and Dallas, we tried to get as many out as we could."  
  
"Yes, I read about that in the newspaper. A lot of people are calling you and your friends heroes."  
  
"Well sir, I don't think we're heroes, we were just trying to help."  
  
"Other than this incident, do you pretty much stay out of trouble?"  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"And how are your grades?" the judge asked, again sifting through papers.  
  
"Real good, I always make As or Bs."  
  
"Do you like living at home with Darry, Soda and Zeta?"  
  
"Yes, sir, I do," Pony said.  
  
"Would you like to continue living there?"  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"Thank you. You may go sit down with your brothers and sister," the judge said. Pony came over to us and the judge started flipping through some pages. He looked over a few things and then back at us.  
  
"Mr. Curtis," the judge said. Darry stood up. "I see no reason for you to not continue custody of your brothers and sisters. Sounds like you are doing a fine job. Monthly state visits will continue, we will revisit this in three years. Case closed," the judge said, banging a hammer down onto his desk.  
  
Soda, Pony and I jumped up and we all hugged. We got to stay together. 


	13. Special Delivery

It hit me when we were riding home in the truck after court. The judge had said that the monthly social worker visits would continue. Our social worker, Sophie Kenzington, came by the house every month to check up on us and make sure we were all doing well. She would keep doing it for three more years. I'd be 17 then. One visit a month, 12 months a year for three years. I tried to do the math but couldn't figure it out.  
  
"What's 12 times 3?" I asked.  
  
"Thirty-six," Darry answered. He glanced at me out of the rearview mirror. "You're really that bad at math, huh?"  
  
I nodded. We'd have to see Ms. Kenzington 36 more times. She was nice enough, but her visits were always weird, I always felt like she was trying to find a reason to separate us.  
  
When we got home, Darry told Pony and me to get changed because he was dropping us off at school on his way to work.  
  
"C'mon Darry, please let us stay home," I begged.  
  
"Yeah, please?"  
  
"I got the day off," Soda said, stretching out on the sofa, mock-laughing at us.  
  
"Darry pleeeeeease?" I begged, giving him my best puppy dog face.  
  
He was trying not to smile, but I knew he was about to give in. Pony sensed it too so he made the puppy dog face. For some reason, it doesn't look right when guys do it, so it made Darry laugh.  
  
"Allright, allright, you can stay home."  
  
"You stay home too," I said.  
  
"I can't, we need the money," Darry said.  
  
"Then let me quit school and help with the bills," I said, half-jokingly, half-seriously.  
  
"I am not starting this conversation again," Darry said.  
  
"C'mon, Darry, seriously; stay home with us."  
  
"You could use a day off," Soda said.  
  
"Yeah, I could, but-"  
  
"But nothing, stay home," I said. I grabbed the keys off the table so he couldn't go anywhere.  
  
"Zeta!" Darry laughed.  
  
"You're not going anywhere now," I said, sitting down on the couch by Soda.  
  
Darry smiled and sat down next to me, then Pony sat down next to him.  
  
"So what do y'all wanna do?" Soda asked.  
  
"We should be cleanin' the house," Darry said, looking around. "It's a mess."  
  
I glanced around. "Looks fine to me," Soda said.  
  
"It needs some new paint," Pony said.  
  
"Let's go," Darry said.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Let's go to the store and get some paint, we can paint the kitchen and dining room!"  
  
I looked at him. "Is that your idea of fun?" It was almost scary seeing him get so excited over paint.  
  
"Actually, yes, it is," Darry said. "Painting or school, your choice," he said.  
  
"I choose to stay home. I have the keys, remember?"  
  
Darry leapt on top of me and started tickling me.  
  
"STOP!" I tried to scream but it was hard to do because I was laughing so hard. He dug his hand into my pocket and quickly retrieved the keys.  
  
"Good defense, Zay," Soda said.  
  
Darry made us all pile into the truck and drove to the hardware store. He talked to the owner, a friend of Dad's, while Soda and I wandered around the store. Soda nudged me and handed me a long, thin piece of metal with a picture of Santa on the end.  
  
"En guarde!" he shouted, and we started battling each other with our driveway reflector Santas.  
  
"Would you two knock that off," Darry said. We put them down.  
  
Santa. I had nearly forgotten it would be Christmas in two months. This would be our first Christmas without Mom and Dad.  
  
"What color are we gonna paint it?" Pony asked. We walked over to the paint samples.  
  
"What about Jamaican Blue," Soda said, pointing to a bright blue piece of paper.  
  
"No, just white," Darry said.  
  
Darry picked up two gallons of plain white paint and took them to the front, then he came back and got some tin pans, and some brushes and rollers. He paid for them and then we went back home.  
  
"I've never painted before," I said.  
  
"It's easy, but let's get out of these clothes," he said. We all went to our rooms to change into older clothes.  
  
Darry covered the carpet and started pouring the paint into the tin pans. "You just brush the paint on the wall, but not too thick, and be careful to cover all of the area," Darry said. He dipped a brush in the paint and showed me how to do it, then handed the brush to me. "See? It's easy."  
  
There were only four of us, so the painting went very quickly; we were done in about an hour and a half. The kitchen looked so much better.  
  
Pony and I went outside to have a smoke, and Soda sat with us while Darry went to go get the mail. He started sifting through it while we went back inside.  
  
"Bills, bills, bills," he muttered to himself, throwing them down on the table. I heard him rip a few of the envelopes open, looking through them and shaking his head. "What am I gonna do with all of these bi-" he stopped mid-sentence, looking at one of the pieces of mail.  
  
"That's not from my teacher, is it?" I asked, fearing he had sent Darry a letter about the test I failed last week.  
  
Darry was frozen, not moving or saying anything. Finally he broke out of his daze. "No," he said. He walked to his room and shut the door. I looked at Soda and we walked over by where the mail was. Darry had taken whatever it was he was looking at with him.  
  
"Did you see what he was looking at?" Soda asked.  
  
"No, did you?"  
  
Soda shook his head. "Pony, did you?" Pony was all wrapped up in some movie, he didn't even hear me. Somehow he was able to totally lose himself in a movie or a book. I never understood how he did it.  
  
"Let's go find out," Soda said.  
  
We burst into Darry's room. He was sitting on his bed reading a pretty thick packet.  
  
"Can you guys please leave for a few minutes, I have to concentrate on something," Darry said without even looking up at us.  
  
Soda turned to leave but I stayed right where I was. Darry looked up.  
  
"I'm not leaving. I wanna know what's going on."  
  
"I don't know yet, okay? I'm trying to find out, just give me some time so I can focus on this, and then I'll explain everything, all right?"  
  
I hesitated but Darry had a pleading expression on his face. "Fine," I said. I shut the door behind me and went outside for another cigarette. 


	14. Darry Reveals All

It had been two hours. Soda and I wanted to start dinner, but the paint was still wet so we couldn't really do anything. Our kitchen is pretty small. We went outside and sat on the porch.  
  
"What could he need to focus on?"  
  
"I dunno," Soda said, taking one of my cigarettes. He lit it and took a puff, then gave it to me. I had to smile; he never smokes so I knew this was really bothering him as much as it was bothering me.  
  
I took the cigarette from him and finished it off. We went back inside and went up to Darry's room and put our ears against the door. We didn't hear anything, and then suddenly the door opened and Soda and I collapsed on top of each other in the doorway.  
  
Darry looked down at us and shook his head, then grabbed my arm and helped me up off the ground.  
  
"Are you guys hungry?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah but the kitchen is still wet-"  
  
"We'll go out, how about some pizza?"  
  
I breathed a sigh of relief. Darry was in a good mood, so whatever was in that letter couldn't have been bad news.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
Darry took all of us to a pizza place downtown. We sat down and ordered.  
  
"So what was in that envelope, are you gonna tell us or what?" Soda asked.  
  
"What envelope?" Pony asked.  
  
"Some letter came in earlier and Darry's been acting all funny since," I said.  
  
"I'm gonna tell y'all now, so listen up," Darry said. "This is what came in the mail today," he said, setting a piece of paper down on the table.  
  
We all leaned over and glanced at it. It was a check made out to Darry for $8,000.  
  
"What-where did this come from?" Soda asked.  
  
"This is Dad's life insurance settlement," Darry said.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Dad took out a life insurance policy at his job, this is the payment."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Okay, lemme break this down. Life insurance is something that people buy. When they die, the insurance company gives money to whoever the person who bought it wants it to go to. You dig?"  
  
"This sounds like a scam," I said.  
  
"It's not. Dad was insured for eight thousand dollars, and here it is," he said, putting the check back in his pocket. "Because you guys aren't 18, all of the money had to go to me and I have to hold it for you until you turn 18."  
  
"This still sounds like a scam."  
  
"It's not, Zay. I read the packet it came with, and then I called Mr. McFarland. This is real. This is our money."  
  
We all sat quietly.  
  
"I am going to take you guys all to the bank tomorrow. I have to open accounts under each of your names. You guys can't take money out of your accounts without my approval until you are 18. We each get two thousand dollars."  
  
None of us really knew what to say.  
  
"What are you gonna do with your money?" I asked Pony.  
  
"Pay for college," he said. Darry was smiling proudly.  
  
"What are you gonna do, Soda?"  
  
"Buy a car," Soda said. "What are you gonna do, Zay?"  
  
I shrugged. It still seemed too weird to me.  
  
"What about you, Darry?" Pony asked.  
  
"Take a vacation," he said.  
  
"I still think this is wrong," I said.  
  
The waitress came by and dropped our pizza off. "I talked to the lawyer, Zeta, it's real, I swear. I don't know why you think I'd start lying to you now."  
  
We ate in silence. It still seemed not real to me. Two thousand dollars. What was I going to do with it? I wasn't using it for college because despite Darry's pleas, I decided I wasn't going to college. I don't even plan on finishing high school, but I would have to wait a while to make Darry see it.  
  
"Why did you ask if I got a note from your teacher?" Darry asked suddenly.  
  
I looked at him blankly.  
  
"When I got the check, you asked if it was a note from your teacher. Should I be expecting one?"  
  
"No," I lied.  
  
"You had a math test last week; how did you do on it?"  
  
I looked out the window. I really didn't want to start crying.  
  
"Zeta, tell me," Darry said. Tears were filling up my eyes. "Did you fail?' he asked.  
  
I wiped my tears away and nodded my head.  
  
"Zeta, your homework was fine. I thought we were making progress."  
  
"I told you, I'm not smart."  
  
"When we get home, I wanna see your test. We'll go through it, okay?"  
  
I realized how much Darry had changed. A few weeks ago, he would have just yelled and grounded me, but now he was trying to help me make it better. He was pretty much back to his old self.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
When we got back home, we put the table and chairs back into the dining room.  
  
"Go get your math book and test," Darry said. I went upstairs, got them and came back down. Darry motioned for me to sit down at the table. "Hand it over," he said. I slid my test over to him across the table. A big red letter F was at the top. I started to cry again. "Stop crying, I ain't mad at you," he said softly.  
  
Darry looked over my test and then sat down next to me. We went through every question that I got wrong on my entire test. Darry looked at my answer and then told me how to find the right one and I started to feel like I understood things. Darry was a real good teacher.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
It was almost midnight and I hadn't slept yet. I kept thinking about that money. I heard Darry come upstairs and go into his room. He had stayed up late paying bills. I waited for a few minutes and then got up and went to his room. It was dark, so he must have been in bed.  
  
"Darry, are you awake?" I whispered.  
  
He turned the lamp on and sat up. "Yeah, I'm awake. It's past midnight, why are you still up?"  
  
I sat down on the corner of his bed. "I can't sleep."  
  
"Is something wrong?"  
  
"Well not wrong, but I was just thinking about this money thing, and-well, I want to give you some of my money for bills and stuff."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Well there's so many of them, and it seems like we can barely get by. It's not fair that you have to use your money to pay the bills You won't let me get a job, so this is the only way I can help out."  
  
"You don't have to," Darry said.  
  
"I know, but I want to," I said.  
  
Darry sat up and gave me a hug. "I know, but you don't have to. Now go to bed, it's late." 


	15. Johnny's Day in Court

The next day it was Johnny's turn in court. He was being tried as an adult for killing that Soc. Ponyboy had to go testify for Johnny but Darry made me go to school. I begged him repeatedly not to make me, but he did anyway.  
  
When school let out, Steve and I ran home to see how Johnny's court case went. The house was empty.  
  
"Guess they aren't home yet," Steve said. We went back outside and sat on the porch, hoping they would come home any minute. Dally and Two-Bit showed up about an hour later, so they sat on the porch and waited with Steve and me.  
  
We got bored so I got a football from inside the house and we tossed it around. Growing up around guys, I had to learn to be athletic or I would have been really bored.  
  
"Zay, go long," Two-Bit called. I ran away from him until I thought I was pretty far out. "No, go longer!" he called. I turned and kept running further, then turned back to him and signaled for him to throw the ball. "Longer!" he called. Longer? I turned and about twenty more feet, then turned and signaled for him to throw the ball again. "Longer!" he shouted, then started laughing. He was joking with me. I flipped him off and started walking back towards them. Dallas and Steve got a pretty good laugh out of that.  
  
While I was walking back, Johnny's father's car came down the street and stopped in front of our house. Pony got out and then shut the door and the car continued. I saw Johnny in the backseat as his father drove right past me and continued down the street. In the distance, I saw the car pull into his driveway and then I saw Johnny's father yank him out of the backseat and shove him into the house.  
  
"Did everything go okay," Two-Bit asked.  
  
"Yeah, they found Johnny not guilty," Pony said, lighting a cigarette.  
  
"Good," Dallas said, lighting a cigarette. "Get in the kitchen and whip us up some dinner," he said, grinning at me. He had developed this annoying habit of ordering me around. It was useless arguing with him though, plus it was almost time for Darry and Soda to come home, so I went into the kitchen and started dinner. I couldn't wait for Darry to get home. My math teacher gave us a pop quiz and I got a C! I couldn't wait to show him, he'd be so proud of me! I hung the quiz on the fridge.  
  
I finished everything just as Darry and Soda walked in the door. Darry went to his room and changed his shirt, then came to the kitchen. I watched him carefully as he reached into the fridge and then closed the door and turned away.  
  
"Ahem!" I said, pointing at the quiz.  
  
"What's this," he asked, taking it off and looking at it.  
  
"A pop quiz we had today in class," I said.  
  
"You got a C?" he asked, looking it over. I nodded. He grinned with pride. "That's my girl!" He picked me up and squeezed me tight, then put me back down.  
  
"How did Johnny's court day go," Soda asked Pony as we all sat down to dinner.  
  
"Fine, they found him not guilty," Pony said.  
  
"Where is Johnny, anyway?" Darry asked.  
  
"He went home with his parents," Two-Bit said. There was a note of sadness in his voice. He must have seen Johnny's dad shoving him into the house like I did. It got real quiet all of a sudden.  
  
We finished eating dinner in silence and then sat down to watch a movie. As we were watching, the door opened in Johnny walked in. I started crying the minute I saw him. He was walking with a limp, and he looked worse than any of us had after the rumble. One eye was swollen shut, his face was swollen and had several cuts on it, and I could see faint bruises already starting to form.  
  
"Johnny, sit down," Darry rushed over to him and helped him down onto the couch. Johnny winced in pain as he sat down. "Your folks do this to you?"  
  
Johnny nodded. Darry went directly to the bathroom to get some alcohol and cotton to help the cuts on his face. Dally, Two-Bit and Steve were swearing under their breath.  
  
Ponyboy hovered over Johnny, looking down at him with tears in his eyes. "This is my fault," he said.  
  
Johnny looked up at him. "No, it ain't, Pone, it's their fault. You didn't do anything," he said.  
  
Dally looked down at Johnny. "You okay, kid?'  
  
"Yeah, the old man needed to break in his new belt, my back's a little sore but I'm okay."  
  
Darry brought him some aspirins and water and when Johnny leaned forward to take them, Darry looked at his back.  
  
"Zay, will you go upstairs and get Johnny a warmer shirt," Darry asked.  
  
I went upstairs and went through Soda and Pony's closet and found a long- sleeved shirt of Soda's. I brought it downstairs for Johnny and saw Johnny leaning forward and Darry putting alcohol on his back. I started to go by Darry and Soda held me back. "Zeta, it's not pretty, don't go lookin' at it, okay?"  
  
I pushed past him and looked down at Johnny's back. There must have been a total of 10 of them. Deep red cuts in his flesh. Each one had dried blood all around it. Dallas swore a blue streak and took off out of the house. I started crying again and Soda immediately covered my mouth and took me into the kitchen. "I told you not to look, just be quiet, okay?"  
  
"This ain't fair," I whispered. "Why do they get away with this?"  
  
"I know it ain't fair, honey, but we can't do anything about it."  
  
I went back to the living room and sat down on the couch next to Johnny. "You want something to eat or drink?"  
  
"I don't want to trouble you," he said.  
  
"It's no trouble at all, I'll be right back."  
  
I heated up some of the leftovers from dinner for him and brought it out to him. He thanked me and ate slowly. I sat down next to Pony and Johnny and we all tried to watch this movie but nobody was really into it.  
  
About 10:00, Johnny said his folks should be in bed by now so he was gonna go home and get some sleep too. We all said goodbye and he left to go home.  
  
"He's gonna be okay, ain't he, Darry?" Ponyboy asked.  
  
"Yeah, he'll be okay," Darry said.  
  
A few minutes later, the door opened and Johnny came back in.  
  
"Folks still up?" Steve asked.  
  
Johnny didn't answer, he just let out a weird gasping sound. I looked up at him. He was as white as if he just seen a ghost. His whole body was shaking.  
  
"They're dead."  
  
"Who's dead?" Soda asked.  
  
Johnny closed his eyes. "My folks. I just walked in the house, and they- they're dead."  
  
Darry leapt off the sofa and we all followed, running down to Johnny's house.  
  
Darry was the first one there, he opened the door and paused, then turned back to us. "Pony, go back home. Take Zeta with you," he ordered. Two- Bit, Steve and Soda went up to the house, looking away when they saw the bodies. Johnny collapsed onto his knees in the front yard.  
  
Ponyboy and I went to him and helped him up. "We have to call the cops," Darry said.  
  
"But what about Johnny?"  
  
"We have to call the cops," Darry repeated. Pony and I sat Johnny down on the front step facing the street. Darry went inside and called the police while we all sat outside in the yard. None of us could really cry, because truth be told, we hated Johnny's parents, and after the way they beat him tonight, we hated them even more. They would never hurt him again.  
  
Soda's voice broke into my thoughts. "Johnny, are you okay?"  
  
He was staring off into the distance and didn't answer.  
  
The police finally showed up. "Pony, you and Zeta go home and go to bed, it's getting late," Darry said.  
  
I looked up at him and was going to protest but he shook his head. "Please go," he said.  
  
I gave Johnny a hug and then Pony and I started walking home.  
  
"Pony?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Are you like--this is gonna sound mean, but are you kinda glad that they died?"  
  
He breathed deeply. "Kind of." I felt better knowing I wasn't the only one.  
  
We got home and waited in the living room. Darry said for us to go to bed, but he should have known we wouldn't listen.  
  
I could see the blue and red lights flashing on the white curtains in the front window, and it reminded me of the night we found out Mom and Dad were killed. I remembered how I felt when Darry told me, it was like somebody punched me in the gut and then ripped my heart out. I wondered if Johnny felt the same way.  
  
It seemed as though we had been waiting for hours. Ponyboy had fallen asleep on the couch but I was wide awake. The flashing sirens were still there, so I decided to go back to Johnny's. Two-Bit and Steve were standing outside talking to the cops. The paramedics were taking Johnny's parents out on stretchers. I waited for them to pass and then went inside where Darry and Soda were standing next to Johnny. Darry saw me come in and motioned for me to join him.  
  
"You're supposed to be in bed, it's really late," he said quietly.  
  
"I can't help it," I said. "Johnny, how are you doing?"  
  
"I'm fine," he said.  
  
"Hello, Zeta," I heard a familiar voice. I looked over and saw Ms. Kenzington.  
  
"Hi. What are you doing here?"  
  
Darry picked up on my confusion. "She's been assigned to be Johnny's social worker," he said.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because he's only 16," Ms. Kenzington said.  
  
"Oh," I said.  
  
"Johnny, don't you have any living relatives-aunts, uncles, grandparents, anything?"  
  
Johnny shook his head slowly.  
  
"Well then I'll have to take you to the boys' home downtown until we can find a suitable foster family," she said.  
  
"No, wait," Darry said. "Ms. Kenzington, he's been through a lot tonight and he's a real close friend of ours, can he stay with us tonight?"  
  
"Well, I don't see the harm. I'll be by tomorrow to take you to the boys' home, Johnny. I'll be here at six. I'm sorry about your parents. Here's my card, call me if you need anything." She turned and walked away.  
  
I started crying hysterically. They were taking Johnny away and putting him in some home. "NO!" I screamed. Darry came up behind me and covered my mouth with one hand, then put his arm around my waist and squeezed. "Quiet," he whispered in my ear.  
  
I stopped screaming, which I realized was pointless to do since he was covering my mouth, and he let go. "Soda, take her home and put her in bed," Darry ordered.  
  
Soda nodded at him and took my hand, leading me out the door and back towards our house.  
  
"Soda, this ain't fair, they can't take him away," I cried.  
  
"I know," he said quietly.  
  
The clock in the living room said it was two in the morning. Pony was still asleep on the couch. Soda led me to the stairs. "There ain't much we can do, just go to sleep, okay?"  
  
I cried myself to sleep. 


	16. Johnny's New Guardian

Author's Note: Sorry for the ultra-quick updates, I'm just thinking of new ideas so fast I just constantly want to keep going so I can get to them. Thank you so much for all of the reviews, I hope you guys like this chapter!  
  
* * *  
  
Darry let Pony and me stay home from school the next day since we'd barely gotten any sleep the night before and since it was Johnny's last day before they'd take him away. I got tears in my eyes just thinking about it. It occurred to me that I was lucky enough to have three brothers, and because Darry was old enough, we got to stay together, but because Johnny was all alone, they were taking him and putting him in some cold, uncaring home where he wouldn't know anybody.  
  
Darry and Soda both stayed home from work today, and Two-Bit and Steve skipped school too.  
  
"My folks were so mean to me-my old man hated me, but they're dead-don't matter anyhow. I suppose I'd better pack my stuff up," Johnny said. We followed him to his house where he went up to his room and started packing up all of his belongings. Darry excused himself, saying he wanted to go up to the store and buy some stuff so we could have one final meal together before he left. We all tried to help Johnny but he asked us to leave so he could do it by himself. I figured he probably wanted to cry but didn't want us to see him.  
  
We went back to our house and took our usual spots in the living room. Nobody was saying anything, I was still in shock that everything was happening. I put my head on Two-Bit's shoulder and started thinking back to when I found out Mom and Dad had died.  
  
(Flashback)  
  
"Kids, are you sure you don't want to come to church with us?" Mom asked, smoothing her green skirt with her hands. It looked real pretty with her white blouse. My mom was the most beautiful woman ever.  
  
We all shook our heads. None of us liked going to church anymore, it was just boring.  
  
"No, I'm still sore from football practice last night," Darry said. Darry got accepted to Oklahoma State University on a football scholarship, and he had just started up practice. He told me it was tougher than high school football.  
  
Mom handed Dad the keys to the truck and they walked towards the front door. "We'll be at church and then at the grocery store, we'll be back in a few hours. Bye kids," mom called.  
  
"Behave while we're gone," Dad said, smiling at us. I had to smile; he always thought we were up to no good.  
  
That was at 8:30. By two that afternoon, we started thinking something was wrong.  
  
"They shoulda been home by now," Darry said, pacing around the living room.  
  
"Maybe they're having a lot of fun at the grocery store," I said.  
  
Everybody stopped and looked at me and then I realized how stupid what I said was.  
  
"Maybe they decided to go into town to go grocery shopping," Soda said.  
  
Suddenly we heard a car pull into the driveway. We were all relieved and opened the door to help with bringing in the groceries, but it wasn't Mom and Dad. A policeman stepped up to the door.  
  
"Is this the Curtis residence?"  
  
"Yes, sir, it is, can I help you?" Darry said.  
  
"Can I come in, son?" the policeman asked.  
  
"Yeah, sure." Darry let him in.  
  
"I think y'all should sit down."  
  
We all sat down and looked at him.  
  
"I'm real sorry to tell y'all this, but your parents' car has just been hit by a train."  
  
"Are they okay?" Pony asked.  
  
The police officer looked down and over at Darry.  
  
"I'm sorry, son, your parents didn't make it."  
  
Suddenly everything just froze. My head started spinning and I felt sick. Darry bit his lip and turned away.  
  
"I'm sorry, son," the cop repeated.  
  
Everything started getting fuzzy, I could hear people talking but I couldn't make out what was being said. Darry punched the wall so hard he left a hole in it. Suddenly it hit me what the cop said. They didn't make it. My parents aren't coming back. Ever. I ran to the bathroom and threw up.  
  
(End Flashback)  
  
I broke out of my daze to see Two-Bit hovering over me handing me some Kleenex.  
  
"What's that for?"  
  
"You're crying," he replied.  
  
I am? I put my fingers up to my cheek and they were wet.  
  
Johnny came in the door. "Well I guess I'm all packed," he said, sitting down on the couch next to Pony.  
  
"Johnny, don't let them put you in some boys' home man," Dally said. "You go away for tonight, we tell that broad we don't know where you are, she leaves and you stay here."  
  
"She'll come back for him," Two-Bit said.  
  
I went outside for a cigarette. I was just about finished when Darry pulled up and came towards the house with two bags of groceries. He handed one to me and I helped him carry them inside.  
  
"Darry, you can't let them take him away," I pleaded.  
  
"Go set the table, Zay," Darry said.  
  
* * *  
  
We just finished dinner when there was a knock on the door.  
  
"Don't answer it, just let her go away," Dally hissed.  
  
Darry rolled his eyes and got up to answer the door. Everybody went into the living room. It was Ms. Kenzington.  
  
"Johnny, are you ready to meet your new guardian?"  
  
Johnny took a deep breath.  
  
"Here he is," Ms. Kenzington said, putting her hand on Darry's shoulder.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Johnny, Darrell has agreed to adopt you. He is going to be your new guardian."  
  
"Is this for real?" Johnny asked.  
  
Darry nodded. "I couldn't see you go to some boys' home. You've always been family, this is just making it official."  
  
"Are you serious?" Johnny asked Ms. Kenzington.  
  
She smiled. "Yes, I'm serious. Darrell, I just have some paperwork for you to sign and then I'll be on my way."  
  
Darry pointed her into the dining room, clearing off some space where she set down her briefcase.  
  
"He's living with us now?" Pony asked.  
  
Darry turned to him and nodded. Johnny went over to Darry.  
  
"Darry, are you sure about this, man? I mean, I can't help out with no bills or nothin', and you guys-"  
  
"You don't gotta worry about no bills," Darry said.  
  
"Thanks, man, I owe you for this," Johnny said.  
  
Darry signed all the papers and then Ms. Kenzington left. It was official. Johnny was now a part of our family. 


	17. Vacation

Author's Note: The truth or dare thing is kind of cheesy, but I needed a way to bring this to light. Sorry! Thanks for all the reviews, I'm glad you guys are still into the story! Because of all the 'sister story' trashing going on, I'm trying to focus it less on Zeta and more on the gang as a whole. Hope this helps appease everybody!  
  
* * *  
  
Johnny spent the next couple of days moving his stuff into our house. Darry moved into Mom and Dad's room and he let Johnny have his room. Johnny had no clue what to do about the bills that came in the mail so Darry told him that he should clean out his house real good, have a garage sale to get rid of all the stuff, and then sell the house. We all helped Johnny out; we sold most of the furniture and took what we couldn't get rid of down to the city dump. Darry made some phone calls and put Johnny's house up for sale.  
  
I still couldn't believe that Johnny was a part of our family. Neither could Johnny. He thanked Darry at least ten times a day for the first week until Darry finally asked him to stop. Having Johnny around was great, we could all stop worrying about him getting beaten by his parents. We were all happy, especially Dallas.  
  
Darry suggested that we take a vacation over Thanksgiving break. There was a cottage out in the country that we could rent out for the weekend. We used to go up there when we were younger. Dad would take the boys hunting and fishing, and occasionally I would go too, but only fishing, never hunting. Mom and I would go to find fresh berries and make homemade jams and preserves.  
  
I finished packing my suitcase and pushed it to the stairs, then put it on the stop stair and kicked it down. It only made it halfway before it crashed into the wall. "What are you doing?" Two-Bit asked, cocking an eyebrow at me.  
  
"I can't carry it," I called down to him.  
  
"Never fear, m'lady, I'll save the day!" he called, rushing to the suitcase. He picked it up and carried it out to the car for me. I rolled my eyes at him and came downstairs to put my shoes on.  
  
"How kind of you, sir, to help a lady in distress," I said.  
  
"I don't see no lady," Dally said, lighting a cigarette.  
  
"So funny," I said, giving him a dirty look.  
  
Darry ran inside. "Is everybody ready?"  
  
"Yeah!" we all chanted.  
  
"Two-Bit, did you go to the bathroom?" Soda asked, half-joking. Once we went somewhere that was an hour away and we had to stop three times so Two- Bit could go to the bathroom. The drive out to the cottage would be about three hours.  
  
Two-Bit raised an eyebrow at him and started to make a smart remark but then ended up running for the bathroom.  
  
He came back out a minute later and we all headed out the door. Because there were so many of us, we were taking our truck and Two-Bit was driving his car. Darry, Soda, Pony and Johnny piled into the truck and Steve, Dally and I got into Two-Bit's car. There were three six-packs of beer on the floor. I laughed. Darry would kill Two-Bit if he tried to drink with me in the car.  
  
"What's so funny?" Dally asked, turning around.  
  
"We're only driving for three hours; do you really need a beer that badly?"  
  
Two-Bit raised his eyebrow at me. "Do you know how slow Darry drives? I could get us there in two hours."  
  
"Do it!" I dared him.  
  
He shook his head. "Darry would kill me."  
  
Darry did drive slow. He always obeyed the speed limit. Soda already had 4 speeding tickets and he wasn't even 17 yet.  
  
Two-Bit, staying right behind Darry, merged onto the highway. "Allright, now pass them beers up here," Dallas ordered.  
  
I handed him two cans of beer and Steve got one for himself. "If you're gonna be drinking, then you should let me drive," I offered.  
  
Two-Bit raised an eyebrow at me. "I can drive better drunk than you can sober," he said.  
  
"You're the one who taught me to drive, so that's your fault," I said.  
  
"You taught her to drive?" Steve asked.  
  
"I don't remember that," Two-Bit said with a look of genuine confusion on his face.  
  
"Yeah, you were drunk that night."  
  
"That explains it," Dally said, lighting a cigarette.  
  
"Have a beer, Zay," Two-Bit said. I did.  
  
Three beers and 45 minutes later, Two-Bit let out a loud burp. "I have to pee," he said.  
  
Dally and Steve groaned and I laughed. Two-Bit dropped his empty beer can out the window and then changed lanes, speeding past Darry. Steve pulled down his pants and stuck his butt in the rear view window, mooning Darry and Soda. I had just taken a sip of beer and spit it out because I was laughing.  
  
The car slowed down as Two-Bit took the offramp, leading to a small gas station. We all got out to stretch while he ran to the bathroom, then we headed right back onto the highway. Two hours (and four bathroom stops) later, we arrived at the cottage. As soon as the car stopped and I stepped out, I took a deep breath. It's funny, but air out in the country smells different, and it feels different to breathe. It feels good.  
  
We all took our stuff into the cottage. I got my own room, I guess that's one of the only good things about being a girl. Steve and Soda took one room, Dally, Darry and Two-Bit took another and Pony and Johnny got the other room. We settled in with our things and then Darry and I went up to the grocery store to get some food. Two-Bit came along to get more beer. We got the basic necessities and I begged Darry to let me get stuff to make s'mores, and he gave in. I loved s'mores, but I never like chocolate on mine. Ponyboy made up for it, he always put twice as much on his as everybody else.  
  
At night, Darry built a fire outside in front of the cabin. It was cold, so the fire felt good. We sat around roasting marshmallows, except for Two- Bit who was just continually drinking. Eventually it got late and Darry went inside to go to sleep, and Ponyboy and Johnny decided to go for a walk in the woods. Since Darry was in bed, Soda warned them to be careful and Dally gave them his blade to use just in case. We were out in the middle of the country, there was no such thing as Socs up here, so there really was no need for it, but they took it anyways.  
  
"Hey, y'all wanna play truth or dare?" Two-Bit suggested. I looked over at him. His eyes were all glazed over from spending an entire day drinking. I figured it was probably nothing new to him.  
  
"Okay," I said.  
  
"I'll go first," Steve said. "Soda, truth or dare?"  
  
"Dare," he said, grinning wildly.  
  
"I dare you to write Sandy a letter telling her to go to hell for what she did to you," he said.  
  
Soda turned away.  
  
"Steve, cut it out, why'd ya have to go bring that up?" I asked. I was seriously mad at him. Soda was finally getting over the whole Sandy thing, He was actually opening up and talking about it on occasion.  
  
"Zeta," Two-Bit changed the subject. "Truth or dare?"  
  
"You're drunk, so I choose truth," I said. The last time we had played truth or dare, Two-Bit was drunk and he dared me to kiss Sandy. On the mouth. He got nasty when he was drunk.  
  
"Are you still a virgin," he asked immediately.  
  
Soda's face turned red. "I don't wanna hear this," he said, going inside. I waited until he was out of earshot before answering. "Yeah," I said. I wasn't stupid, Darry would kill me if I got pregnant.  
  
"Dally, truth or dare?"  
  
"Truth," he said, lighting a cigarette.  
  
"What's the worst thing you've ever done?"  
  
He looked into the fire and they seemed to reflect in his eyes. "I killed somebody," he answered.  
  
My ears perked up. I never knew this. "In New York?"  
  
"No, here in Tulsa," he replied, looking away.  
  
"Who?" Steve asked.  
  
Dally looked around nervously.  
  
"Who?" I repeated.  
  
"You guys gotta swear you won't tell nobody, you got it? Nobody!"  
  
"I swear," we repeated.  
  
He swallowed hard. "Johnny's parents."  
  
* That's the end of this chapter. It's my own story and I'm shocked by it, so I hope you guys like!!!! 


	18. If you can't stand the heat

Our first Thanksgiving without Mom and Dad was even more depressing than I had thought. Not only did I not have my parents, I had a horrible secret that I was forbidden from sharing. Two-Bit and Steve both seemed to be able to handle the truth, but I could barely keep it inside.  
  
"Zay?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Soda sat down next to me on the porch. "Is something bugging you?"  
  
I wanted to tell him so bad, but I knew Dally would kill me.  
  
Suddenly that phrase took on a whole new meaning.  
  
"No, I'm okay," I said.  
  
"You sure? You just smoked about eight cigarettes in a row."  
  
I had?  
  
"Yeah, I'm alright."  
  
I got up and went inside to get something to drink. Two-Bit was sitting on the sink playing with his knife. I got some chocolate milk from the fridge.  
  
"This whole Dally thing is still buggin' me," I said. It was four days ago, and it had been the longest four days of my life.  
  
"What Dally thing?" Two-Bit pretended not to know what I was talking about.  
  
"You know what I mean," I said. "I think we should tell Johnny," I said.  
  
"Zeta, we can't. I don't think Johnny should know anyways, it would hurt him."  
  
"But-"  
  
"But nothing, you ain't telling him."  
  
I slammed the door to the fridge and went up to my room.  
  
About two hours later, Darry was calling me to come downstairs for dinner. I went down the stairs and sat in a chair at the table. I didn't feel like eating anything. I picked at the meatloaf and potatoes and ate two bites, then went back up to my room. Darry came in my room and shut the door behind him, then sat down on my bed.  
  
"What's wrong, Zeta?"  
  
"Why do you think something's wrong?"  
  
"You're acting funny. Not eating, not smiling, not doing anything. So what's wrong?"  
  
I could feel my heart racing.  
  
Tell him.  
  
No don't tell him.  
  
But I should tell him. If I were Johnny, I'd want to know.  
  
No, I wouldn't want to know.  
  
This would be so much easier if he could read my mind. Maybe he can read my mind. Maybe he already knows and I don't have to tell him. That sounded pretty good to me, so I waited to see if Darry would say anything.  
  
"Zeta, whatever it is, you can tell me."  
  
"But I'm not supposed to tell anybody," I whispered. A tear ran down my cheek and I brushed it away quickly.  
  
Darry put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed me tight to him. "Zeta, whatever it is, just tell me. Something's bothering you, and I want to know what."  
  
I couldn't help myself, I started crying. "Dally killed Johnny's parents."  
  
Darry froze. "He what?"  
  
"He told me, and Steve and Two-Bit. It was an accident. I want to tell Johnny but Two-bit said not to."  
  
"I think he's right," Darry said softly. "It's not our place to tell Johnny, Zay."  
  
"But Darry-"  
  
"Zeta, it's not our place. This is between them. I don't want you telling him, you dig?"  
  
"But Darry-"  
  
"No. Don't tell him."  
  
I lowered my head and nodded. "Do you want to come downstairs and eat now? You barely ate anything before."  
  
"Yeah, I guess."  
  
I went downstairs and ate some of the cake in the fridge while Darry sorted through the mail.  
  
"Soda, did you get another speeding ticket?"  
  
"Huh? Oh yeah, last week."  
  
"That's your third ticket in the last two months! You better slow down, little buddy, or you won't be driving anywhere."  
  
"How fast were you going?" Two-Bit asked.  
  
"65," Soda replied, trying to pull a hidden card out of his shoe.  
  
"In a 25," Steve said, who reached down and pulled the card out of Soda's shoe, then threw it at him.  
  
"Ponyboy Curtis, what is this?" Darry shouted.  
  
Ponyboy got up and went over to Darry.  
  
"It says here you're failing English," he said.  
  
"Yeah, I know," Pony said.  
  
"What are you gonna do about it?"  
  
"We have an essay due that is for a big part of our grade. It'll be a good one, I promise, Darry."  
  
"You'd better hope so," Darry said, turning to me and Johnny. "Are either of you two failing anything that you want to tell me about?"  
  
I shook my head, but Johnny sighed. "Math," he said softly.  
  
"Well that would explain this other letter from the school," Darry said. "I want to see your math homework from now on before you turn it in, okay?"  
  
Johnny nodded and went back to playing poker. I sat down on the couch next to Ponyboy who was reading a book. "Whatcha reading?"  
  
"Gone with the Wind," he replied.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"It's a good book, you should borrow it when I'm done with it."  
  
"I'll pass," I said.  
  
The door opened and I knew it was Dally. He came in and greeted everyone with a dirty joke, then joined in the poker game. It was still weird for me to be around Dally knowing what he did.  
  
"Don't you wanna play, Zeta? You're better than half these boys," Dally asked me.  
  
"No," I said, and I went up to my room.  
  
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dally scowling at me. Note to self: don't be alone with Dally anytime soon. 


	19. The Truth

I felt better knowing that Darry knew about Dally. If Darry said that keeping it from Johnny was the right thing to do, then I figured I should listen to him, even if I didn't agree with him. Dally was starting to figure out that I was still mad at him for what he'd done. I was actually scared to be around him, but just like a greaser, I never let it show.  
  
I could hear Ponyboy teaching Johnny math in the living room, so I got up and left. It was bad enough I had to hear it in school, let alone hear it at home. I was no more than three feet out the door when I saw Dallas walking up toward me. I started to walk off to the side. "Where you goin'?" he asked.  
  
"For a walk," I said, not even looking at him.  
  
He grabbed my arm and carefully pulled me toward him. "Me too," he said, and spun around, leading me away from the house.  
  
We walked three blocks in dead silence. "What's the matter with you?" he finally asked, letting go of my arm.  
  
"Nothin'," I replied, lighting a cigarette.  
  
"Bullshit. You been actin' funny for a few days now."  
  
I didn't say anything. I was scared and trying so hard to hide it that I was afraid I'd cry if I said anything.  
  
"You're mad about Johnny, ain't you?"  
  
I looked down at the ground.  
  
"Look, kid, I said it was an accident."  
  
"Don't call me kid, Dal. If you found out your folks were dead, wouldn't you want to know who did it?"  
  
"No! My parents don't give a hang about me, they don't care if I'm dead or alive. Neither did Johnny's folks, Zeta. They didn't care about him-we were more family to him than they were. They didn't give a damn about him, and they got what they deserved." Dally pushed the hair back out of his face and his eyes were like a fire burning. I could tell he was furious. He turned and slammed his fist into a tree. "You try to help somebody-" he muttered under his breath.  
  
"Help somebody?? Dally, if it hadn't been for Darry, they woulda put Johnny in some home where he woulda never seen us again! How is that helping him?" I was now shouting louder than Dally had been a minute ago.  
  
"I said it was an accident!" Dally shouted, getting right up in my face. I was now standing toe-to-toe with Dallas Winston, not exactly a good place to be. "What Johnny don't know ain't gonna hurt him! You promised not to tell him, and you'd better not if you know what's good for you!"  
  
"Dally?"  
  
Dallas turned to the side, and there was Johnny.  
  
"Dally, what's goin' on?"  
  
"Johnnycakes, I-"  
  
"Dally, you. . ." Johnny took a deep breath. "You killed 'em?"  
  
"It was an accident."  
  
Johnny turned around and took off running. I tried to catch up with him, but he was actually pretty fast. Or maybe I need to quit smoking.  
  
I headed home, where Soda was teaching Ponyboy how to make mashed potatoes into snowmen.  
  
"Zeta, you're just in time," he called out to me. I didn't even look at him; I went straight to the living room, grabbed Darry and pulled him up to my room.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"Dally and I were fighting about the whole Johnny thing, and Johnny heard Dally and found out the truth, and he took off running, I don't know where he went."  
  
Darry went downstairs and got in his truck to go find Johnny.  
  
"Zeta, what's going on?" Soda and Ponyboy asked.  
  
I looked at them blankly and then realized that they didn't know.  
  
"Dally killed Johnny's parents, and Johnny just found out. He took off, Darry went to go find him."  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
Darry walked in the door two hours later. "I've looked everywhere, I can't find him. I must've driven the entire city of Tulsa three times."  
  
He sat down in his chair and rubbed his forehead.  
  
"Ponyboy, can you think of anywhere Johnny would have gone?" Soda asked.  
  
"Just the empty lot."  
  
"I checked there twice," Darry said.  
  
"You want me to drive around some more?" Two-Bit offered.  
  
Darry shook his head. "He'll come back when he's ready."  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
About two hours later, Johnny came in the house.  
  
Soda and Two-Bit ran up to him. "You okay?"  
  
"Y'all know what happened, huh?"  
  
"I told them," I whispered.  
  
"Yeah, I'm okay," he said. "I just needed to get out for a while."  
  
"I looked everywhere for you," Darry said. "Next time, just call, okay?"  
  
"I'm sorry, Darry."  
  
"It's okay. You sure you're alright?"  
  
"Yeah, I think I'm gonna go lay down now," Johnny said, walking to his room.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
The next day, Johnny, Ponyboy and I walked home from school and found Dally sitting on the couch waiting for us when we got home.  
  
"Hey, Johnnycakes," he greeted.  
  
"Hi," Johnny said, barely looking up at him.  
  
Ponyboy and I went upstairs and hung out by the stairs to listen.  
  
"Johnny. . . I didn't want you to find out, it was an accident."  
  
Silence.  
  
"Johnny, I'm sorry," Dally said. I had never heard Dally apologize for anything.  
  
"Come on Johnny, say something."  
  
"What am I supposed to say, Dal? They were my parents, man!"  
  
"I was sick of them beatin' on you."  
  
"But they were my parents, Dal. Maybe they didn't care about me, maybe they weren't as good to me as they shoulda been, but they were my folks."  
  
"Johnny-"  
  
"I need to be alone for a while," Johnny said, and then I heard the door close. I went downstairs to see if it was Johnny or Dally who had left. Dallas was sitting on the couch smoking a cigarette.  
  
"See what you did?"  
  
"What I did? I didn't pull the trigger!" I shouted back at him. Dally got that look in his eyes, that dangerous get-out-of-my-way look. I stumbled backwards and then reminded myself to be tough, so I stood straight up, waiting for whatever punishment Dally would deal out for that comment. He clenched his teeth and took off out the door. 


	20. Dally's Disappearing Act

So sorry about the length of time between updates! I'm working massive overtime at my job and all kinds of other junk, and things are just chaotic! Sorry! Hope y'all enjoy the story. I'm kind of struggling with where to take it, so if you have any ideas, please feel free to share!!!! ~Sam  
  
* * *  
  
"Darry, I'm worried about Johnny," I said, sitting down on the edge of his bed.  
  
"Why, did something else happen?"  
  
"No, but-Darry, it's been four days since he found out about his folks, and he ain't said a word to nobody since."  
  
"Zeta, he's upset. Remember how you felt when you found out about Mom and Dad? Well, imagine feeling that way and then finding out that it was Dally's fault. It's gonna take some time for him to get over it, and we need to let him deal with it his own way. All we can do is be here for him and listen to him if he decides he wants to talk to us about it."  
  
"Where's Dally?"  
  
"I don't know, Zay. Nobody's heard from him."  
  
"Do you think he's okay?"  
  
"I'm sure he is. You need to go to bed now, it's almost 10 o'clock, and you have a math test tomorrow."  
  
I rolled my eyes and went out to the living room, where Soda and Two-Bit were arguing over a sheet of paper.  
  
"Zeta! I hope you're smarter than this greasy thug you call a brother," Two-Bit said, raising his eyebrow at Soda.  
  
"Zeta is smarter than me, an' she's smarter than you too but that don't say much," Soda said, attempting to raise his eyebrow back at Two-Bit.  
  
"What are you two doing?" I asked.  
  
"Steve made a bet with us. We have one hour to name all 50 states and then he's gonna give us each $10," Soda said.  
  
"We have to win, I need beer money," Two-Bit said.  
  
"Like you'd pay for it anyhow," Steve called from across the house.  
  
"So how many states do you have so far?"  
  
"Two," Two-Bit said. "Drunk and delirious!"  
  
Soda grinned at him and then turned to me. "We have Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Las Vegas-"  
  
"Las Vegas is a city in Nevada," Ponyboy said, walking into the kitchen. Two-Bit tackled him onto the ground and then Steve ran into the room and dove on top of Two-Bit. "You can't use him," Steve said. "That ain't fair!"  
  
"You can't use either one of them," Darry said, pulling Steve and Two-Bit off Pony. "They need to go to bed, they have school tomorrow."  
  
"I mean it you two, in bed, right now, ya hear?"  
  
The phone rang and Darry went to the kitchen to answer it  
  
"I wonder if that's somebody calling from NEBRASKA," Ponyboy said. Soda jumped up and scribbled down Nebraska on the piece of paper.  
  
"Or maybe it's somebody from CALIFORNIA," Pony said.  
  
"Stop it!" Steve shouted.  
  
"Or what? You'll send me to VERMONT?"  
  
"I'm warning you, Ponyboy Curtis!" Steve shouted.  
  
"But please don't send me to OHIO!"  
  
Steve leapt on Ponyboy and started tickling him while Two-Bit, Soda and I watched and laughed.  
  
Darry came back from the kitchen and pulled Steve off Pony.  
  
"Dally's in jail."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Darry sat down in his chair. "He just called from jail, he got hauled in for knocking off a liquor store."  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
The bell rang and I nearly jumped out of my chair. I had only answered about half the questions on my math test. I hadn't slept the night before and I spent most of class thinking about Dally. Dally sitting in jail. Again.  
  
The bad feelings I had for Dally were nothing compared to the bad feelings I now had for myself. I had just failed my math test and Darry was going to kill me.  
  
When we got home after school, Johnny actually suggested that we go outside and play football. Ponyboy and I looked at each other in excitement that Johnny was actually speaking to us.  
  
We played football for a while and then Two-Bit came over and played with us, and then I went inside to start dinner.  
  
A while later, Darry and Soda pulled into the driveway. Darry went to Johnny and they both came into the house but Soda stayed outside to play football. I listened as Darry and Johnny came inside.  
  
"The principal said you skipped a few classes today," Darry said softly.  
  
Johnny looked down at the ground. "I won't do it again, man."  
  
"Johnny, why did you skip school?"  
  
Johnny hesitated and kept staring at the ground. "I-I went to go see Dally."  
  
Darry glanced up at him. "In jail?"  
  
Johnny nodded slowly.  
  
"Johnny, do you know how dangerous that was?"  
  
"I'm sorry," he said.  
  
"If you wanted to see him, you could have asked, I would have taken you up there."  
  
Johnny was silent again staring at the ground.  
  
"It's okay, Johnny, you ain't in trouble, but I expect you to be in school from now on. You dig?"  
  
"Yeah, allright."  
  
Darry popped into the kitchen. "Dinner ready yet?"  
  
"Not yet," I said, stirring a pot of boiling water to make myself look like I haven't been listening to him.  
  
"Hey Zeta?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"Can we have some green beans with that water?" He smiled at me and then sat down in his chair to read the paper. 


End file.
